Importance of Play

Play is very important for a child, children learn best through play, young children learn more during the first five years of the lives than at any time, at this time in life they are learning through playing. Play is creative and self directed, a child can play on his own or with others, both ways the child will learn new things. By playing from a young age the child will learn a lot of different skills that will help all through the child’s life, the child will learn to share with others, socialise, deal with mistakes and take risks. Play always involves action, active involvement is essential to play and learning. Playing as a child contributes to physical development, social development, cognitive development and cultural development. Through play children develop their knowledge about the world, they develop their language as they will learn new words and try them out, whilst playing the child will use many different emotions depending on what they are playing, the child is learning to share and gaining social skills whilst playing with others and physically the child is developing coordination skills.

There are a lot of theoretical approaches that are current today that link to play that helps to meet the children’s needs. Theorists for many years have professed that children learn best through play.

Play is important in settings as children learn through play; whilst children play they build on their self esteem and become more confident. It is important that children’s needs are met so they will develop more skills and have a wider knowledge of the environment.

Many theorists believed that the way for children to understand difficult learning concepts is through play and they have forward models of learning based on children’s play and how they learn through suitable activities.

Froebel believed that play was important for the child for them to discover how things work, he believed that it was a pleasurable activity but it is very purposeful. Froebel founded his first Kindergarten in 1840, he believed that children should be aware of the outdoor world and he expressed that children should be physically active and have real life experiences. He believed in Child Centred education and that play was an important part of children’s development. He invented finger play, songs and rhymes to meet children’s learning needs, this is still used today in settings where they use songs and rhymes to help the children learn, and this is good as the children are learning as well as having fun. He was well known for encouraging learning by using blocks which he called gifts, these encouraged children to understand mathematical concepts and relationships through playing with blocks. Froebel valued symbolic play, this is where children understand that they can make one thing stand for something else, and this is still used today as the Foundation Phase is used in settings and it has seven areas of learning and one of those areas is Mathematical Development so they are using this by playing with blocks. He felt that children would learn at their highest level through imaginative play and encouraged play in the home corners and dressing up areas as they would have to use their imagination.

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