Playtime is Crucial for Growth Development

We don’t see a messy room we see growth development!

As a child, playtime is sacred. In early grades, it is one of the more cherished parts of the school day and sometimes kids would rather play than go to sleep or do their homework. Playtime may seem like downtime, but it can actually play an important role in a child’s early development. From the time that they are infants and toddlers and up and onward, allowing kids with ample time to play can help bolster their imagination, their creativity and even their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

Babies learn by interacting with the physical world around them. They touch, feel and explore objects. At this age, children play with items and the space around them in order to understand it, so you can see why playtime is so vital at this stage. This is why many toys are geared towards introducing kids to colors, shapes and numbers. Since children cannot yet communicate through language, they learn by seeing, feeling, interacting and even tasting – hence the desire to drool and gnaw on everything they get their little hands on!

Older children can benefit greatly from playtime as well, but it helps to make distinctions between types of play. Media can be informative and imaginative, but parents should still try to limit screen time so children can exercise their own personal modes of creativity and ingenuity. Whether children are reading a physical book, playing pretend, or reenacting a story with dolls and action figures, they are fueling their activities with ideas that are their own. This sort of playtime can allow children to explore their interests and even learn more about themselves. It is also not uncommon for favorite playtime activities to become lifelong hobbies and passions for music, art, creative writing, or acting.

Legos provide hours of spatial reasoning

Encouraging kids to play allows them to learn things naturally and organically. Playing with blocks allows kids to develop spatial reasoning and an understanding of engineering and physics. Writing or reading stories helps critical thinking skills and abstract concept understanding. Acting can help with communication and expression, and sports or other activities can help kids excel in other physical arenas. There are so many possibilities for education and personal development when it comes to playtime. Encourage your children to play, to invent, to play pretend, and to help them learn more about themselves and inspire a curiosity in the world around them, that will live on in their imagination well after they’ve “grown up”.

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