Playground and Child Development - Essay Example

Running Head: What Researchers Know PLAYGROUND AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT Name Course Title Course Instructor Date Introduction Playing whether indoor or outdoor is not only just a means through which children let out steam. It is a vital part of any child’s development and growth. Play helps children grow and develop physical strength, balance and coordination. Play also creates an environment for the children to be able to learn and develop. The paper discusses the importance of playground to the development of children between the ages of 0 and 5. Additionally, the paper will discuss the how the playground is able to develop the child cognitively, enhance the child’s motor skills as well as his or her social capabilities. The paper will also discuss the importance of having and developing different play grounds as they have different learning lessons to develop the child’s social, emotional, cognitive and motor skills. To begin with, play enhances the child’s social skills. Children learn to share, communicate, collaborate and empathize with his or her playmates. Play is able to enhance a child’s creativity and imaginative skills. This is because the outside play is mostly open-ended. This implies that the child should employ novelty in how the games are played. The child is also able to be equipped with problem solving skills through wide thinking. This will enable him or her to develop modes of assessing the risks and ways of tackling new and projected challenges. The child through this is able to develop perseverance and persistence and witness the success that this can bring along. Additionally, play enhances the child’s ability to master novel skills and as they play with other children, they are able to enhance their self-confidence and be able to believe in their own abilities. Play enables the child to have a sense of connection to peers, place, environment and community at large. As they manage their skills in self-care, the children are able manage the physical as well as societal challenges. This is able to help the child to identify the importance of keeping oneself clean (French, 2005). In order for the child play learning to be supported, there is need for spaces to be created. The areas should be free, imaginative, social, quiet, exploratory and creative. Children are to be invited to use their own inventiveness as well as explore possibilities that can be useful in providing opportunities for them to learn. Playgrounds are important as they give provisions for children to freely play. There is a clear link between the development of motor skills, brain development and social capabilities. Playgrounds offer a chance for the child to play and thus accelerating and fueling emotional, social, cognitive and motor learning through the pleasure they find in play. There is thus need for different playgrounds to be developed (French,2005). Play involves the spontaneous activity or activities that the children involve them in to have fun. This can be through the use of the body by dancing, running and jumping. Additionally the child would use the mind through fantasy play. Other forms include the use of props like building blocks and pushing toys. Other plays could involve the use of words by singing and use of jokes. Curiosity is what fuels and drives play. Play begins as a simple activity and progressively becomes complex as the child or children grow. Free play is different from plays that are structured. This gives an opportunity for the child to play in any way he or she wants or chooses to. The play could be supported by available structures depending on the player’s creativity. The child is able to natural tendencies and be able to learn from each other and interact with a variety of age groups and abilities (Hayes, 2007). The early stages of a child are vital in the development of a child. Play actions are vital in the stimulation of the functions and development of the brain. Many regular play opportunities provide a chance for the child to access a variety of the gross motor activities. Most children who have limited brain power are believed not to have had meaningful interactions which were crucial at the early six years. Early childhood stages mirrors the childhood early play stages. The corresponding portions of the brain to activities that are patterned are highly activated by play. The growth of these portions is often promoted by every stage of play at an early age. This is because the play stages lay neural connections and acts to speed up cerebellar synapses. Frequent play enables this activities an easy highway as the brain is able to freely relate to them (Devine, 2002). The structures of the playground help facilitate the cognitive development of the child at free play. Since the child at the toddler stage learns through motor activities and sensory impressions and the interactions of these two, the structuring of the playground is vital. They provide an environment and avenue for the child’s cognitive aspects to be developed, expanded, enriched and at the same time built by playing. It should be noted that it is hard for a child above the age of five to further develop efficient and effective motor skills. These skills are mainly fostered and enhanced through outdoor play. Playgrounds are thus a vital ingredient to toddlers and infants as they offer them with a chance to exercise play and provide a chance for the motor skills to grow. Challenging but safe equipment re thus advised during this stage as they refine the skills. Critical space is thus provided by the playground offer a chance for them to develop the skills and have a smooth advancement to the next important development stages of life. This is because the outdoor playgrounds offer equipment and play that is appropriate to stimulate age specific development. For instance, coordination and manipulation could be enhanced by tactile panels whereas loco motor skills could be enhanced by ramps and bridges. On the other hand, swings and slides are able to enhance coordination and balance. The child depending on his or her developmental stage could be able to decode and encode movements, have reflexes that are inhibited and movements that are controlled. These will be in areas where the child is expected to hop, grasp and release objects while playing. This will enable the child to progress from the elementary stages and progress to the motor stage movements. This will be in activities that will require the child to run, hop, balance and perform axial movement (Greenman, 2005). Children play at free will and are directed by personal behavior that is intrinsically motivated by needs, desires and wants. Play could either be serious or for fun. Through playing, children are able to explore material, imaginary and the social world and how they relate with it. They also adopt new modes of responses as well as reflexes to challenges that they encounter along the way. They are able to learn to develop as individuals and how they are able to fit in the society as its members. The pedagogy of play involves the need for the children to appreciate the meaning of the play activities from the participants’ point of view. Children often relate play to having friends, fun and being out of the normal internal environment. The children in the first stages of life often love and learn through exploring the surrounding environment. This provides a source of security and physical warmth. Children under the ages of three are often uncomfortable with spaces that are wide open and prefer surroundings that are small in scale and in the presence of the nurturing adults. The details of the ground that allow them to explore their surrounding are important as they often crawl and kneel to the ground while playing. For such stages the children need to be provided with open ended materials for lay. This include construction play, transportation games, creation of small spaces, water playing as well as being involved in storytelling. There is also need for the persons or adults that are close to them to fully understand the values of play and are also willingly able to provide guidance at every key moment (Clarke, 2006). Adults have a particular role to play when it comes to play. They have and need to have the interest of the child development at heart. They also need to have an appreciation of how important the play is to the children. Additionally, they are to be involved in play with the children and need to know the areas that the particular play enhances. It is vital to note that children learn from participation and through mistakes. Ideally, not every child learns at the same pace. This implies that the adult with the play children should be able to understand the games that each child likes and be able to assist them appreciate the games (Kernan, 2006). The achievement of the child will depend on the play the child involves in. Children are to be invited to use their own inventiveness as well as explore possibilities that can be useful in providing opportunities for them to learn. Playgrounds are important as they give provisions for children to freely play. There is a clear link between the development of motor skills, brain development and social capabilities. Curiosity is what fuels and drives play. Play begins as a simple activity and progressively becomes complex as the child or children grow. Free play is different from plays that are structured. This gives an opportunity for the child to play in any way he or she wants or chooses to. The play could be supported by available structures depending on the player’s creativity. The child is able to natural tendencies and be able to learn from each other and interact with a variety of age groups and abilities (Kytta, 2004). In conclusion, space is thus provided by the playground offer a chance for them to develop the skills and have a smooth advancement to the next important development stages of life. This is because the outdoor playgrounds offer equipment and play that is appropriate to stimulate age specific development. For instance, coordination and manipulation could be enhanced by tactile panels whereas loco motor skills could be enhanced by ramps and bridges. On the other hand, swings and slides are able to enhance coordination and balance. The child depending on his or her developmental stage could be able to decode and encode movements, have reflexes that are inhibited and movements that are controlled. These will be in areas where the child is expected to hop, grasp and release objects while playing. This will enable the child to progress from the elementary stages and progress to the motor stage movements. Children are to be invited to use their own inventiveness as well as explore possibilities that can be useful in providing opportunities for them to learn. Playgrounds are important as they give provisions for children to freely play. There is a clear link between the development of motor skills, brain development and social capabilities. Playgrounds offer a chance for the child to play and thus accelerating and fueling emotional, social, cognitive and motor learning through the pleasure they find in play. There is thus need for different playgrounds to be developed. Play actions are vital in the stimulation of the functions and development of the brain. Many regular play opportunities provide a chance for the child to access a variety of the gross motor activities. Most children who have limited brain power are believed not to have had meaningful interactions which were crucial at the early six years. Early childhood stages mirrors the childhood early play stages. The corresponding portions of the brain to activities that are patterned are highly activated by play. The growth of these portions is often promoted by every stage of play at an early age. This is because the play stages lay neural connections and acts to speed up cerebellar synapses. Challenging but safe equipment re thus advised during this stage as they refine the skills. Critical space is thus provided by the playground offer a chance for them to develop the skills and have a smooth advancement to the next important development stages of life Reference Kytta, M. (2004), The extent of children’s independent mobility and the number of actualized affordances as criteria for child-friendly environments, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 179–198. Kernan, M. (2006), The place of the outdoors in constructions of a ‘good’ childhood: an interdisciplinary study of outdoor provision in early childhood education in urban settings. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University College Dublin. Kernan, M. (2005), Developing citizenship through supervised play: the Civics Institute of Ireland playgrounds, 1933 – 75, History of Education, 34(6), 675 – 687. Hayes, N. (2007), Perspectives on the relationship between education and care in early childhood, The Framework for Early Learning, Research paper. NCCA. Greenman, J. (2005), Caring spaces, learning places: children’s environments that work (Bellevue, WA, Child Care Exchange Press). French, G. and Murphy, P. (2005), Once in a lifetime: early childhood care and education for children from birth to three (Dublin, Barnardos). Devine, D. (2002) Children’s citizenship and the structuring of adult-child relations in the primary school,Childhood, 9, 303–320. Clarke, C.D. (2006), Therapeutic advantages of play in, A. Goncu and S. Gaskins (Eds) Play and development: evolutionary, socio cultural, and functional perspectives (Mahwah, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum), pp. 3 –17. Read More