Margaret Watkinson

In an effort to understand the importance of play in a child’s development, let’s look under the hood of play. We instinctively know that playing is important, but do we give much thought as to HOW important it is? As the basis for learning, practicing and generalizing (using skills in a variety of situations), play is the most efficient, practical and developmentally appropriate way to go. If this is true, and I believe it is, then providing and dedicating the time, space, materials and, yes, social guidance that children require to engage in self-directed, open-ended activity over a period of years, many years, should remain a priority.

Let’s look at play in three sections. There is how a child uses stuff…let’s call that “use of materials”. A child has to do something with the stuff, and this is tied to their motor skills. Motor skills are essential to a young child’s ability to learn because a) they do not yet have abstract thinking skills, but they are in the process of developing them) and b), they can’t develop abstract thinking skills until they have experienced their world, and their materials, through their senses. So let’s call motor skill development the “content” of their play. The third area of play development deals with why play even happens, the involvement with other people. Let’s call that the social aspects of play.

The three separate areas or sections to look at play are:

1. Use of materials – how a child interacts with ‘stuff’, tied to motor skill development (all parts of the body involved, moving stuff, using an item in a new way, creating games)
2. Motor skill development – the ‘content’ of play, use of their body, experiencing the stuff, the world through the senses, practicing and perfecting fine and gross motor skills, using materials in novel ways and using the brain and body to make and follow ‘rules’
3. Social development- the motivations for playing at all- a parent or caregiver, solitary play, play side by side, turn taking, sharing materials, taking on roles and finally, finding satisfaction with doing something ‘right’ or correcting as defined by the child.

Developmentally appropriate practice claims that children learn best when they are:

1. Interested
2. Actively engaged
3. partners in a responsive interaction

Play is the context for young children to be interested, actively engaged and partners in a responsive interaction. This is where learning occurs for all young children.

Adults and caregivers have a role. Supporting play appropriately requires careful observation of a child’s play repertoire, and providing opportunities for mastery and control a their current level while challenging children to develop next level of play. This is easier to when children are infants or very young, it’s unlikely that a caregiver would expect a baby to share, or pretend to be eating spaghetti.

It get’s trickier as kids get more verbal, more skilled and we expect more mature play skills to be naturally occurring. We all can think of examples of this not working out. Typically, we expect mixed aged groups to work together- for example, 5 yo who wants to assign roles but the 2 or 3 yo who doesn’t care if there are three moms and all heck breaks out. Or the 3 yo who moves game pieces willy-nilly and the 6 yo loses it! When kids are at different play levels; they need adult assistance with solutions.

Adults need to pay attention to the play space, the materials and how the young children are using them and make thoughtful additions and adjustments for children to continue to learn through engaging play for years as they should!