Did you know that children learn through play? Play is actually a large part of a child’s framework for learning. In fact, active engagement in structured settings enhances many areas of your children’s development and leads to success in many areas of your children’s lives. These are ways meaningful play enhances learning.
Encourages the Development of Personal Skills
Your children feel an intrinsic motivation to play with toys, such as bird figurines, dinosaurs, and farm animals. When you allow them to direct their own play, they gain self-confidence. However, they also develop other personal skills, including self-regulation and control.
Play also provides coping mechanisms for stressful or emotional situations. It teaches your children social competence, especially if you or other children play with them because this type of play requires personal interactions.
Play also encourages the development of physical skills, such as balance, running, dancing, and jumping. And playing with small toys helps develop your child’s hand-eye coordination and improves dexterity in their hands, fingers, and limbs. It takes fine motor skills to pick up and manipulate these objects.
Enhance Imagination and Creativity
Play enhances learning in many different ways including helping children use their imagination and creativity. Playing with realistic toys, such as farm animal toys, also encourages children to explore the real world. They become more curious about nature, animals, dinosaurs, farming, and other natural phenomena. This interest encourages them to seek out other toys, stories, and sources of information on these topics. It opens their mind to exploring more about their worlds.
They also start to build worlds and create stories around these objects. They put their toys into complex situations that require creative solutions, allowing abstract conceptualization.
Improve Cognition, Critical Thinking, and Concentration
Play enhances your children’s education in several ways. It helps improve their math, literacy, and memory capabilities. They also learn problem-solving skills. When children play, they involve more than one sense. They aren’t actively involved instead of just sitting there listening to lectures. They move their hands, dance, sing, hear stories, discuss issues that relate to their play, and play with toys, such as bird figurines. You may even create snacks that are playful and enhance learning. They also study real-life scenarios, so they learn about occupations, animals, and other people.
Encourage Communication Skill Development
While play enhances learning, it also helps young children with their communication skills. When you play with your children, you speak with them. You can help them develop stories about their toys, ask them questions, or direct them to do specific activities, such as hiding their dinosaur toys from predators.
Every time you play with your children, you teach them new vocabulary words. You also help them learn to listen more effectively. As you ask them about their toys, they learn how to structure their sentences and speak clearly.
The same things happen when your children play with others. They try to express themselves, tell stories, and direct other children. You can also teach them signs for toys like bird figurines using ASL giving them additional language skills.
Build Emotional Support and Empathy
Play produces deeper, more nurturing relationships, especially between your children and you, their siblings and their peers. This helps them with their socio-emotional development. As they play, they learn sharing and negotiation skills. They begin to understand different perspectives and learn to cooperate with others, giving them greater social understanding.
One of the best ways parents can encourage their children’s development is through playing with them. You can find open-ended toys, such as bird figurines, at Safari Ltd. that will help you during your playtime with your children so you can see how play enhances learning.