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Other Important Benefits of Play For Your Child
While play can produce all the benefits we’ve already mentioned, it also provides your child with other benefits that will help them perform better in school and in life.
Here are some of the other benefits of play:
Development Of Language And Communication Skills
We are working on an article about it. It will be up soon.
Building Confidence And Self-Esteem
Play is a great way for a child to build their confidence and self-esteem. By being free to explore, your child will develop their problem solving skills which helps them build confidence.
It also encourages them to try even more new things, building their self-esteem through the success they have.
When your toddler walks a few steps with the aid of their push toy, their confidence grows.
Sure they fall down, but the excitement of having walked those few steps, together with your encouragement, gives them the confidence to get up and try again!
The same thing applies with puzzles for toddlers and older children.
When toddlers finish their first puzzle, they feel elated.
Their self-esteem grows and they feel confident enough to try a new puzzle, maybe one with more pieces.
Playing with other children also helps develop their self-esteem and confidence.
Being part of a group teaches your child important things like how to share, communicate, lead and support.
Those are all wonderful life skills that help shape your child’s growth and development.
Children learn how to socialize with others through many types of play.
Playing with others not only teaches your child valuable social skills, it also teaches them how to pick up on non-verbal cues from others.
They learn how to show empathy, be generous, be helpful, how to participate in group activities and how to problem solve.
Play teaches your child how to cooperate with others to reach a common goal and even how to take a leadership role. It also allows them to communicate their own wants and needs.
Groups activities such as sports, board games, doing large puzzles and playing with building toys can all go a long way to improving your child’s social skills.
The social skills that your child learns through play from a young age will form the basis of relationships they will develop as they grow older.
Development Of Negotiation Skills
More about that is over here.
Adopting Adult Behavior And Roles
Children learn how to behave as an adult by watching their parents and other adults. They love to mimic what they observe through their play.
For example, little girls in particular will observe everything their mother does with their newborn baby brother or sister.
They will then copy that behavior when playing with their own dolls, soothing, nurturing and even singing the same lullaby to their doll.
Your child will take on adult roles through pretend play and this allows them to learn basic adult skills.
Play kitchens, toy grocery carts, and tea party sets are all great examples of toys your child will use for role-playing and emulating what they’ve seen you and other adults do.
Learning Self Control
Children learn to control themselves and their actions through play.
It’s not always easy and sometimes it takes time for them to learn but play is an excellent way for them to learn self control.
For example, if your child is playing with others, they have to learn to wait their turn and not get distracted while they wait.
Certain games help to teach kids about self control.
The old classic game of ‘Freeze’ is one such example. Kids dance and move around when the music is playing, but the minute the music stops they have to freeze.
This can be a challenge initially for kids, as they get caught up in the moment and excitement of it all.
But as they get older and are exposed to different situations over and over, they become better at controlling themselves.
Another area which your child will learn self control is in how they express and cope with their emotions.
If a child is playing a game with others, they can become upset if they lose or if it’s not going their way.
Over time, and with the help of their parents, kids learn to manage their emotions and behavior better when playing games with a win or lose outcome.
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