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As a Play Therapist and mother, I am a huge advocate for play-based learning.
To the adult eye, children are just playing. But what is really happening in your child’s brain is that millions of neural connections are being formed. What may seem like “just playing” is a child learning about their world. They are learning communication, how to navigate relationships, turn-taking, balance and control, memorization and focus, emotional regulation, and mastery of tasks. Play is a child’s language, and it is how they learn. Play is imperative to a child’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development.
Play is so essential to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child.
Play nurtures imagination, creativity, learning, connection, and communication. Play also provides an outlet and stress reliever for children.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), “Play is also critical to safe, stable, and nurturing relationships, supporting developmental milestones, and mental health.” They also report, “Play builds the brain and the body. Play has been shown to support brain structure and functioning, facilitating synapse connection and improving brain plasticity.”
Children’s Hospital of Chicago reports that, in the first few years of life, there is a rapid growth of neurons and that there are more than one million neural connections (synapses) formed every second. According to the National Institute of Play, over 70% of that wiring is completed by the time we are three years old, and play is critically important to creating that wiring.
Play research has shown that play is central to leading healthy, productive human lives. No matter your age, play is as important to your mental health as food is to your physical health. As stated by Dee Ray, a professor and director of the Center for Play Therapy, “The parts of the brain that are most developed in the early years are the ones that respond to active experiences.”
From peek-a-boo to stacking blocks to relay racing, sports, dress-up, board games, or art, these play-based activities have extraordinary benefits on our child’s brain and their development.
While play has numerous benefits, I have focused on 12 Benefits Of Play On Your Child’s Development based on what research has shown to be very effective.
Play Benefits Problem-Solving Skills
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Play provides an opportunity for a child to be met with a conflict and to try and figure out a solution. It encourages them to think creatively, think outside the box, and understand how best to resolve the challenge. The AAP states, “Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills.”
Certain games may facilitate problem-solving activities. A child may also face problem-solving through unstructured pretend play with a friend. A situation that prompts the opportunity to navigate conflict with peers or figure out the rules of a game may arise. Problem-solving through play may also be “simple,” such as a child trying to find the correct puzzle piece or deciding which size block to use.
Whatever the problem at hand, play builds a sense of confidence and mastery in navigating what they are trying to figure out and fosters self-esteem in solving other conflicts or challenges.
Play Benefits Decision-Making Skills
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Play fosters opportunities for choice and being in control of decisions. Children begin to develop strategic thinking and, over time, learn to understand how each decision may result in a different outcome. It may be simple, like deciding between the blue square or red square, following the game’s rules, or navigating right and wrong. Play provides all these opportunities for children to build decision-making skills that can be applied in everyday situations.
Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, share, negotiate, resolve conflicts, and learn self-advocacy skills.
As reported by the AAP, “When play is allowed to be child-driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover their areas of interest, and ultimately engage fully in the passions they wish to pursue.”
Play Benefits Language And Communication Skills
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Play supports language development by asking children to decipher meaning and listen and observe cues from others. Play allows children to practice the language skills they have learned and build on their expanding vocabulary. Interacting with adults and peers also enables children to refine their speech sounds through listening to others.
Children build their communication skills through games and play with their peers. Even very young children who cannot yet speak can communicate with others through their play. As noted by the AAP, less-verbal children may be able to express themselves, including their frustrations, through play, allowing their parents (and others) an opportunity to understand their needs better.
As they age, children build communication through asking questions, learning from others, and through “repeated exposures to words in various settings.” Research shows that play allows for a child to build a robust vocabulary and understanding of different concepts.
Imaginative play is just one example where children’s communication and language skills can flourish. Through reenactments or storytelling with puppets, dolls, or figures, children can better understand their world and be able to communicate with others.
Play Benefits Cognitive Development
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“Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.”
-Dianne Ackerman
This quote by Dianne Ackerman perfectly summarizes the power of play. Play is how children learn. The Karen Purvis Institute of Child Development reinforces, “Play has shown to have many benefits for the brain because it not only engages children in activities that promote cognitive development (e.g., problem-solving, collaboration, mental flexibility, creativity) but it also removes barriers to cognitive development (e.g., fear, anxiety, stress).”
Play helps academic performance. It can help memory recall, navigate solutions, and improve executive functioning. Matching and memory games are one example, along with educational games that make learning fun. Simon Says, Red Light Green Light, or Hide & Seek are other playful ways to build cognitive development and executive functioning.
The American Academy of Pediatrics states, “Executive functioning includes working memory, flexible thinking, and self-regulation. Children use these skills to learn, solve problems, follow directions, and pay attention. Play also supports early math skills such as spatial concepts.”
Play Benefits Physical Development
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Play through physical movement helps develop balance, coordination, and gross and fine motor skills. Movement allows for releasing tension, physical fitness, and an outlet for children. Playful games that facilitate jumping, bouncing, running, or hopping all facilitate gross motor skills. Fine motor skills can be strengthened through scooping, pouring, cutting, or stacking. All of these have extraordinary benefits for children’s development.
The AAP further reinforces, “Play enhances physical health by building active, healthy bodies. In fact, it has been suggested that encouraging unstructured play may be an exceptional way to increase physical activity levels in children, which is one important strategy in the resolution of the obesity epidemic.”
A National Institutes of Health publication indicated “Various observational, experimental, and correlational have confirmed the relevance of motor play for physical and sensory development.”
They reported, “The variety of games that children play from an early age are a fundamental stimulus for their psychomotor development.” Examples included motor coordination such as parts of the body, balance, eye-hand and eye-foot coordination, precision of movements, and muscle strength, as well as perceptual structuring, which highlighted visual, auditory, rhythmic, temporal, and tactile perception and spatial orientation.
Play Benefits Social Development
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Social development is a huge benefit of play as it involves other children and adults. Even when children are not directly playing with others, they observe and learn social cues and social relationships. Children learn from other children. Children learn about kids who do not look like them or sound like them. They build social and communication skills. They learn how to share, cooperate, compromise, and patience in waiting their turn. Through social engagement, children learn empathy and learn to see things from another perspective.
The AAP states, “Research demonstrates that developmentally appropriate play with parents and peers is a singular opportunity to promote the social-emotional, cognitive, language, and self-regulation skills that build executive function and a prosocial brain.”
We’ve written about cooperative play and its importance in a child’s development.
Play Benefits Attachment
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Play provides a strong pathway for connection and attunement between children and their loved ones. The reciprocity between laughter, playfulness, and enjoyment between caregivers and children builds strong neural pathways in the brain. And this benefit is not just for children. Play also benefits parents and caregivers, as it releases oxytocin, which helps build trust and safety, combats stress and reduces anxiety. Through play, caregivers learn about their child, can better communicate, and better understand their child’s cues. This all helps to form a strong, secure attachment.
For newborns and babies, this playful interaction takes the form of eye contact, vocalizations, facial expressions, and physical comfort. This is the introduction of play! Something as “small” as eye contact and smiling is building the structure of a child’s brain.
An article from Utah State University reinforced that “A child’s development is affected positively by consistent and loving relationships with parents as they interact through play. Quite simply, the bonds between parent and child are built and made stronger when playing together.”
As reported by the AAP, “Play supports the formation of the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships with all caregivers that children need to thrive.”
Play allows for a different quality of interaction between parent and child, one that allows parents to “listen” in a very different but productive way. When parents observe their children playing or join them in child-driven play, they can view the world through their child’s eyes and, therefore, may learn to communicate or offer guidance more effectively.
Play allows children to express and learn about their world safely. When a child can do this in the presence of a parent, it helps to form strong connections. You may notice your child asks you to play with them, only for you to be sitting alone, watching them. If you get up, your child may request you stay, stating, “Play with me!” You are with your child. You are an active observer; to them, you are very much playing and connected. If you feel like sitting next to your child while they play is not playing with them, rest assured that this simple act is helping form many vital aspects of their brain and your relationship.
Play Benefits Relationship Building
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Play provides an opportunity for children to develop strong relationships. Through play, children learn that they have similar interests and can quickly figure out if they enjoy playing with one another. It fosters positive connections.
Play also facilitates opportunities for children to listen to one another, share ideas and perspectives, cooperate, and show respect. They build skills to communicate with one another, take turns, and collaborate on solving problems.
Play is one of the building blocks for strong, healthy relationships. Relationship building can be fostered through sports, teams, pretend play, side-by-side play, legos, and art; the opportunities are endless.
As noted in Zero to Three, “Children need practice in order to learn to share, take turns, resolve conflict, and feel the joy of friendship. Playing together gives children all of this—plus a chance for parents to connect with others adults, too!”
Play Benefits Creativity
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Play sparks creativity. Play allows a safe space for kids to explore, engage with their world, be curious, and use their imagination. They can explore their world through their senses. Learn cause and effect. They can be investigators, scientists, and artists. Play encourages free expression and allows children to learn about their unique interests.
What happens when you mix red and blue? What happens if the Play-Doh is combined with model magic? Will this sink or float? There are endless learning opportunities and ways children can explore their world through creative play.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reinforces that “Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength.”
Play Benefits Confidence And Self-Esteem
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Through play, children learn to build mastery and confidence in speaking, interacting with peers, completing tasks, taking chances, and taking action. Play also fosters confidence in children to teach others their skills.
A child who has mastered pouring water in a cup without spilling or has finally made a high tower without it falling over will gladly boast their skills. As they master their world, play helps children develop new competencies that enhance their confidence and resiliency to face future challenges.
Games and activities can help boost confidence and self-esteem. It could be a game they are unsure how to win, a challenging puzzle, trying to make the basketball in the hoop, or tying their shoelaces. Whatever the task, once a child has mastered the skill, their self-esteem flourishes.
The AAP states, “It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles, sometimes in conjunction with other children or adult caregivers.”
The act of playing with your child also helps build their confidence within themselves. As reinforced by Christina Pay, Executive Professor at Utah State University, “Engaging fully with your child in play offers a wonderful opportunity to build your child’s self-esteem. Imagine how your child must feel, knowing that the most important person in their world likes them enough to take the time to play with them.”
Play Benefits Emotional Regulation
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Play promotes the skills to learn emotional regulation. Pretend play allows for a sense of control and security and can enable children to explore their feelings. Play provides a safe space for kids to identify, process, and learn to understand their emotions. Through play, positive and negative emotions can be expressed in various ways. Role-playing, storytelling, puppets, dolls, and other imaginative play activities can allow children to work through complicated feelings and learn how to cope with challenges effectively. Certain games specific to emotions can also reinforce emotional regulation as paired with playful tasks.
The Karen Purvis Institute of Child Development states, “Play promotes development of a wide range of socio-emotional skills, such as self-regulation, listening, negotiating, independent thinking, taking other perspectives, persistence, and curiosity.”
Research also shows us that child-directed play improves a child’s self-control, how they handle their feelings, and how they feel about themselves. Research also demonstrates that play releases oxytocin, which helps regulate emotions, and dopamine, a neurotransmitter that impacts memory, motivation, attention, and mood.
Building emotional regulation skills through play fosters strong mental and emotional health in our children, allowing for future success.
To the adult eye, we may see a child simply stacking blocks or building Legos. But the stacking of blocks leads to them falling over or possibly another child knocking down their tower. The Lego may not correctly connect to another Lego. Games like Uno, Chutes & Ladders, or Candy Land, facilitate taking turns, starting over, losing a turn, or adding cards to their deck, all of which will naturally spark an age-appropriate emotional response in kids.
These playful activities and tasks build connections in a child’s brain. They learn resilience, to identify their emotions, to try again, and to cope with challenges.
Play Benefits The Stress Response
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“Play has a vital role in children’s affective-emotional balance, as it enables the expression and release of childhood tensions.”
National Institutes of Health
Play is a child’s outlet. For some adults, their stress outlet may be exercise, sports, talking to a friend or gardening. Some adults repeatedly vent or rehash an event or experience by telling multiple people. This is the role play serves for children. It is not uncommon to see children have themed play or reenact specific experiences over and over through play. This provides emotional distance to express themselves safely. It is an emotional outlet that offers a sense of control and helps make sense of what happened.
Play is a natural tool that children can and should use to build their resilience. At its core, developing resilience is about learning to overcome challenges and adversity.
The AAP reports, “Children learn to deal with social challenges and navigate peer relationships on the playground. In addition, even small children use imaginative play and fantasy to take on their fears and create or explore a world they can master. Play allows them to create fantasy heroes that conquer their deepest fears.”
The National Institutes of Health states, “Play is an instrument of expression and emotional control, essential for growth. This activity contributes to the integration of the personality because children play for pleasure, to express aggressiveness, to master their anxiety, to increase their experiences, to establish social contacts, etc.”
Playful interactions with friends or family will also serve as an outlet for kids. Feeling connected, seen, heard, and respected through play further fosters stress relief. Play triggers the reward and pleasure centers of the brain and can help reduce stress by releasing endorphins, the body’s natural stress relievers.
The National Institutes of Health also reinforces “The mutual joy and shared communication and attunement (harmonious serve and return interactions) that parents and children can experience during play regulate the body’s stress response.”
We know from years of research that the lack of play impacts kids negatively: difficulty managing stress, relationship difficulties, communication and cognitive challenges, physical problems, health deficiencies, lack of social skills, and academic problems, among others.
Play is crucial for a child’s healthy development. I love how Dr. Stuart Brown succinctly sums up the importance of play in our lives, ” We are built to play and built by play.”