The Importance of Play
I’ve written about the importance of developing language,
not only for its own sake, but also as an important step toward literacy. But I want to write today about the
importance of play for young children.
In recent years, with the passage of “No Child Left Behind,” play has
been pushed aside to make room for more academic pursuits with younger and
younger children; the idea being that if we want more literate children then we
need to begin teaching the ABC’s earlier. However, extensive research has
documented the value of play, not only to develop literacy skills but also
social skills and self-regulation, both of which are critical for academic
success.
While there are many different kinds of play, today I want
to specifically address adult-supported socio-dramatic play. This is simply
fantasy play where Mom and Dad get to join in. In this type of play the adult is involved in
three different ways: as observer, stage-manager, and co-player. As an observer
the adult must decide when to intervene in the child’s play. This may be to help move a child from simple
imitation (copying the actions of a superhero or villain) into more purposeful,
goal-oriented play. If your son is
pretending to be Spiderman you may need to ask, “Who do you need to save today?”
or “How are you going to do that? What’s the plan?” As stage manager the adult can help the child
develop or expand upon a chosen theme with a space to play, a time to play, and
props. As co-player the adult becomes
directly involved in the child’s play and can help expand a child’s
understanding of concepts and language development through modeling and
scaffolding of language. For example, if
your child has chosen to play beauty shop you can take to opportunity to
introduce new vocabulary such as bald, bangs, beard, curly, mustache, reflection, shave, straight, and trim. Take the child’s
lead and be careful not to take over or be too intrusive. It is important to avoid explaining or
directly teaching in these play situations as the child may decide that he is
no longer having fun.
So, what are the benefits of socio-dramatic play? The first
benefit is seen in the area of self-regulation.
Self –regulation can be described as a child’s ability to regulate
his/her emotions, actions, and thinking processes such as organizing and
planning. Children who participate in
preschool programs which utilize socio-dramatic play in the curriculum show
increased impulse control, increased on-task behavior, and less arguing with
peers. Studies have also shown increased
social skills in children who regularly participate in socio-dramatic
play. They demonstrate behaviors which
are more cooperative, there is more “give and take” in play and conversation,
and they are better able to take the perspective of others. Finally, benefits
of socio-dramatic play are seen in literacy skills. A crucial step in learning how to read is
moving from concrete representation of items to more abstract representation. Learning
how to symbolically represent an item is developmental; a toddler needs a toy
car to play cars, a two year-old only needs a block to imagine a car, while a
preschooler does not need a prop at all to imagine a car. So every time your
child enters her imaginary world she is developing abstract, symbolic thought
needed for reading and writing.
If you are interested in reading more about the importance
of play, here are a couple of good sources:
Children’s Play: The Roots of Reading
Edited by Edward
F. Zigler
A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play
Written by Vivian Gussin Paley
