The Role of Play in Emotional and Social Development
The role of play in a child's emotional and physical development is crucial.
AKA, let's get serious about play.
Play acts as a fundamental cornerstone in childhood development. Within this realm, children have the opportunity to explore their environment, build social skills, activate their imaginations, express emotion, and develop tolerance. This post will dive into different types of play and how they benefit emotional and physical development in children.
Different Types of Play
While there are many types of play and various stages in between, we're going to explore four different fundamental structures and how emotional development through play is enhanced.
Structured Play
Structured play is set by the adult and offers a guided play experience for the child. Within structured play, children learn focus, discipline, and critical thinking skills. When given a set of rules or expectations to adhere to, children learn how structure can lead to positive outcomes, like reaching a goal or arriving at an expected outcome.
During structured play, adults serve as leaders, either through facilitating or directly joining the child's experience. It's building with a trusted source and creates opportunities for positive interaction and teambuilding.
Examples of structured play could include solving a puzzle together, learning how to play an instrument, board games, and playing in a team sport.
Free Play
Free play, or unstructured play, puts the wheel in the child's hands. Free play gives them space to lead and direct, reinventing the concept of rigid structure, and developing their own sense of playfulness. Free play cultivates an environment where children are encouraged to explore and learn freely, with an emphasis on maintaining their safety.
During free play, adults take the backseat and allow the child to set the standard of the game. The child, or children, decide which activities are most pleasurable in the moment, develop a set of rules, and experience choice freedom, further developing positive independence, self-guided decision-making, and fostering imagination and confidence. It's fun for fun's sake!
Solitary Play
Solitary play is commonly seen during the toddler phase of growth. Playing on one's own offers freedom in independence, fostering the ability to make decisions for oneself, discern what is pleasurable and what is not, and develop personal interests.
Solitary play allows a child to utilize their imagination and create worlds of their own. This can look like playing with dolls or toy cars, creating sound and expression, and exploring emotional landscapes of others or objects outside of themselves. Drawing or coloring brings their internal landscape to the external.
This form of play is crucial in the earliest years because it leads to future experiences of playing with others.
Social Play
Social play, or cooperative play, becomes possible after children have learned how to play with others. This developmental stage follows observational and parallel play, where they haven't quite mastered the art of social connection but have observed what socialization appears to be. Now, they’re ready to mingle in the group.
In social play, children take an active interest in the other. They begin to share space more harmoniously, can process the positives of sharing, and apply their independent nature in social situations. Through merging their personalities with one another, they begin to develop and now deepen relationships. Without the experience of solitary play, social play cannot form cohesively. During social play, caregivers are encouraged to offer emotional support when conflict (a necessary growth experience) arises.
Social play can look like group activities that share a common goal, building imaginary worlds with toys or through role-play, creating stories, and developing "rules" that connect imagination and reality. Social play teaches team building, leadership, turn-taking, enforces social expectations, and creates bonds with other individuals.
Play and Positive Impacts on the Brain
Playing and educational learning go hand-in-hand whilst remaining separate. Studies show that the objective of play changes the connectivity of neurons in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This pathway connection helps strengthen emotional receptivity and expression, develop problem-to-solution patterns, and define positive execution behaviors. Learning these skills in early childhood development creates a positive trajectory that aids personal, social, and even academic growth into adulthood.
Importance of Play in Childhood: A Conclusion
Studies show a decrease in playtime offered during traditional schooling in the United States. Even one hour of playtime every day has shown a positive increase in development, from the ability to focus, engage positively, and retain new information. Free play introduces oxytocin, the feel-good chemical, into the brain, which is an undeniable benefit. When we generally feel better as a baseline, it's easier to regulate our nervous systems during times of challenge or stress.
At Brain to Belly Kids Yoga, we are champions of play! We create spaces where kids are free to be kids, and we help teach the caregivers in their lives simple and effective strategies to explore emotional regulation through yoga, mindfulness, and play. Together, we can help children build essential skills, foster emotional intelligence, create healthy bonds, and promote access to a joy-filled life. Let's embrace the joy of play and support our children's growth in a fun and meaningful way!