Looking at Development
Introduction
A significant part of the process of a child’s positive development, which allows for the expression of creativity and learning processes in play. Additionally, play is critical for the physical development of the child as well as the healthy progression of mental faculties. As such, we shall analyze the effects of the game on the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of a child.
Discussion
Physical Development
Engaging in play is critical to the positive physical development of the child. The physical activity of play allows the child to have the associated health benefits of exercise (Whitebread et al., 2017). Some of the benefits include the honing of balance, coordination, and motor skills. Motor skills include crawling, walking, and smaller movements, such as picking items. Additionally, the play has an important role in allowing for the determination of the child’s physical strengths and weaknesses. This creates harmony in determining the activities to engage the child (Feeney et al., 2016). For example, through running and kicking balls, children can develop their eye and foot coordination. In the process, their muscles are also able to develop for increased strength.
Cognitive Development
Cognitive development looks at aspects of developing their thinking processes. Additionally, this has an aspect of problem-solving skills and an understanding of the world around them. Play is an important part of this step as it assists children in engaging their creativity and imagination, which is healthy for the development of the brain. Children can understand and master the world in a way that they can understand through exploration (Feeney et al., 2016). In this way, children can develop various cognitive competencies. For example, through interaction with sand and water, children can understand the various states of matter – solid and liquid – and the properties that they can assign to the states. Also, through activities such as using building blocks and jigsaws, children can develop their logic processes as well as their ability to solve various processes.
Socio-emotional
This is an important part of creating awareness of the self. Through socio-emotional learning, children can have increased self-awareness, control, and develop the necessary interpersonal skills for developing their life activities. These are important aspects that assist a child in having appropriate development of self and social strengths. Play with others enables children to experience their own and others’ emotions, thus creating and thus learn to practice the necessary interaction skills with other children and adults as well. As such, engaging in group games involving drawing and painting where there is a need for turn-taking can help students understand how to interact with others. Also, children can learn how to share and interact with others through activities such as sharing toys or games that require turn-taking.
Conclusion
In conclusion, play is an important aspect of the child development process. There are three important areas that are necessary for the positive development of a child – physical, social-emotional, and cognitive. Through play, children can develop good muscle development as well as gain other cardiovascular benefits associated with exercise. On the socio-emotional, children can develop the necessary skills to interact with other children and adults. Finally, children can develop decision-making, problem-solving, and other cognitive associated skills by engaging in play. Also, this helps the child to have better understanding of the world and the state of matters which they interact with.
References
Feeney, S., Moravcik, E., Nolte, S. (2016). Who Am I in the Lives of Children? An Introduction to Early Childhood Education. Pearson Publishing. ISBN: 9780134148991.
Whitebread, D., Neale, D., Jensen, H., Liu, C., Solis, S. L., Hopkins, E., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Zosh, J. (2017). The role of play in children’s development: a review of the evidence. ISBN: 978-87-999589-3-1