subject: Thirty Reasons For Social Play by:Paul Camp [print this page] Children go to school to learn and when school is out they can relax and play. Parents often feel that they have to work a lot harder than their kids. When they go home from work, there's usually a never-ending list of chores waiting for them. But is playing just a way for kids to relax?
Not quite. Children actually learn many times more during play, then they do in school. The major difference between learning in school and playing is that in school kids have to learn what we think is important, while during play they get to follow their own interest. A teacher has to asses what is appropriate for a child to learn and what he or she will be able to understand, while children just naturally know.
And playing is not random either. Have you ever seen a child building and toppling a tower of blocks? By seeing what happens when the tower topples over, he's learning about gravity. He keeps building the tower over and over until he's can finally predict what will happen when he topples the tower. When that insight is achieved he moves on to something new to learn. That's why a lot of teachers do not just try to teach kids according to their own agenda, but instead provide a rich environment in which they will naturally learn what they need to know. For the most part learning is not something that is done to children, but something kids actively pursue themselves by playing. Children learn all day every day.
A very important type of play is social play. When kids play with peers they develop:
- Sharing skills.
- Kindness.
- Compassion.
- Empathy.
- Acceptance of differences.
- Including others instead of exclusion.
- Increased attention span.
- Attachment to humans versus objects.
- The ability to apologize.
- Better self-esteem.
- Assertiveness.
- The ability to settle an argument.
- A strong sense of self.
- Better academic achievements.
- Basic trust.
- Solution focused thinking skills.
- The ability to say 'no'.
- Patience.
- The ability to accept criticism.
- Personal opinions.
- Role taking skills.
- The ability to ask a clear question.
- Theory of mind.
- A more stable positive mood.
- Frustration handling skills.
These are just some of the benefits that start during childhood. During adulthood we can add 'finding a life partner, sustaining a meaningful relationship, finding (and keeping) a job and parenting' to the list.
That's thirty off the top of my head reasons why social play is important. They are directly tied to the things we value most in our lives and it is something children can only learn when playing with others.
Paul Camp has studied educational theory and has worked in various areas of youth care, education and special needs care. He has taught and written about such topics as childrearing, philosophy, developmental psychology, play therapy, sand-play therapy, short-term solution-oriented therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness based cognitive therapy. He is a co-founder of the PIVOO institute.
