Power of Play for Positive Human Development - Assignment Example

Power of Play for Positive Human Development Stark post: In the article Power of Play, it addressed how kids in this generation play differently today than prior times. Kids tend not to play outside these days. Psychologist David Elkin stated “Play is essential to positive human development, but kids are playing less and less.” When I was a child, I can recall going outside every day to play with my friends. I have a 5 year old son that loves to play in nature and enjoy his younger days as a child. I found it interesting that schools have taken away recess to allow more time for academics. “With play on the decline, we risk losing these and many other benefits. For too long, we have treated play as a luxury that kids, as well as adults, could do without. But the time has come for us to recognize why play is worth defending: It is essential to leading a happy and healthy life.” Playing for peace is a nonprofit organization that was created for children all the way to college students who create activities to participate in. The overall message is playing is essential for any age and we as people need to focus more on playing. I enjoyed reading about Kaboom. This article describes the study of a playground project that involved the community members. I believe every neighborhood should have projects that bring strong community members to help build their neighborhood. The article addressed how parents felt as though they couldn’t help make their communities better for their children. As a whole we can start to make a change in our communities. Response 1 According to the reading above, children have in the past enjoyed play in their life, but in the recent years, we have seen such time dedicated to other activities. Currently, we are experiencing the effects of less child play as our children are growing with negative psychological effects. Play generally helps one to lead a healthy and happy life. That is the reason why a project aimed at encouraging play is helpful for children of all ages’ upto college students as they will benefit a lot from it. 2 Afam post: As I enter into adulthood, I still remember the memories of my childhood. Even during my child hood kids were being active less and stayed more in home. With the advancement of technology kids are more prone to stay indoors and play the video game that’s coming out. Even though technology is a component that limits the amount of time child stay outside. Parents and loved ones are also at blame. There the ones who essentially purchase the video games for the kids to play, if the parents would discipline there child to show that it’s bad to stay indoors and that you could have more fun outside. With Kaboom going on, it’s a great way for kids to stay active and know the positive role models that are there community. Many people don’t believe that doing volunteer work for a kid doesn’t change how the act. I like to refute that statement, last year when I did community service for a class that I took. I was stationed with kids, and some of these kids that I was with were looking like they were having a bad week. The technique that I used to change their attitude was pretty easy; I basically asked them about their day and how I could change it. Just by saying that particular line I could see their face lit up. For the kids of the future to change us as their role models must be their role models. Response 2 It is evident that with the invention of more indoor games, kids nowadays are taking play inside their homes. In the past, children used to fancy playing outside. Outside play enhanced interaction in the community. According to the Kaboom article, in order for kids to stay active, play is important. In the community, coming up with a project to help children exploit this free given activity is useful to their development. 3. Tarun post: In the "KaBOOM" article, the part that really caught my eye and made me feel very good was in Chart 4 when it says the lawyer donated 5k in the money raising process, and later asked, "What else can I do for this school?" If a lawyer who probably works from 60-80 hours a week on his craft can find the time to make a donation and help out the school for the betterment of the youth, why can't the average Joe like me go out and help the community in a positive way. I may not have the money to donate, but I have the heart to make a difference. That little part in the article shows me that there are some successful people out there in the world that actually care about others instead of just caring about money and class. The "Power to Play" is very indicative of the youth of America today and even most teens now. Instead of going outside and spenfing their leisure time in play, children and teens would rather stay inside and play video games, go on social networks, and watch television. This is very bad for kids because as it says in the article, "play is crucial to physical, intellectual, and social-emotional development at all ages." That is especially true for teens and kids because that is when they have the highest ability to learn and develop. Feels like today's youth would rather live in the virtual world than actually go out and be in the real world. And later, as they grow older and actually step foot into the real world, they are not prepared and most end up being depressed. The world is only getting more and more tech-related, so the more your kids are out and playing, the more prepared they'll be for the future. Response 3 Play has been ignored in the past years. With the coming of things like television and video games, children have shifted their attention to playing in the houses. This has reduced the benefits of play. It is postulated that play is helpful as it enhances physical, social, emotional and intellectual development. If then one can spend time to ensure such benefits are accrued to our children, then that can be helful. 4. Darlyn post: There are two things that caught my attention in the "Power of Play" article. First was that kids nowadays would rather stay indoors to 'play'. I remember when I was in grade school, all I ever wanted was to be outside the house and meet with my friends on the streets. We meet outside after finishing our homeworks and then we play whatever game was popular at that time. It was rare that my friends and I met to play indoors to use some gaming console to entertain ourselves. I think the article was on point when it said, "Children who might once have enjoyed a pick-up game of baseball in an empty lot now watch the game on TV, sitting on their couch." Whenever I drive home from school or work, I expect the loud noises and laughter of kids playing outside; instead, I hear the sound effects coming from the video games kids play. The second idea that convicted me was the fact that there are so many after-school programs nowadays that offer students' educational enhancement. Isn't already enough that kids stay at school for about 8 hours at school learning, and yet they still add another 1-2 hours of learning. Education is important, but the power of play should not be undervalued. The second article, "Kaboom", inspired me to be more involved. Sometimes, there are projects in our communities that ask for help, such as: money, time, and skills. More often, we usually just give money because we do not have time to help out with our busy lives. This article though changed my perspective. It is not about what we give anymore, but it is the quality that we give. Say they were able to raise the money they need, but there are no workers to worko on the project, then all the money are just wasted. We need to become more like the lawyer in chart 4. He not only gave financialy, but he also asked, "'What else can I do for this school?'”. Response 4 As I grew up, I remember playing less with my buddies as I was busy playing indoors with game and social media. We spent most of our evening hours watching our favorite television station instead of playing outside. I would never like such a life for other children to live and that is why I advocate for projects that would enhance child play. 5. Laroy post: Power of play article "From 1997 to 2003, chil- dren’s time spent outdoors fell 50 percent, according to a study by Sandra Hofferth at the University of Maryland." This single line along was very shocking to me. Not shocking in the sense that I didn't know that kids were'nt outside playing but shocking in the sense that this percentage is way bigger than I thought it was. I grew up in a culdesac in oakland where all of the families knew one another, where all of the families childrens were close friends, and things were safer. But now its dangerous to let children outside to go play unsupervised and with things getting more expenssive parents have to wor longer shifts and have less control over how or when their children do get to go play. I believe its up to schools to remember that playing is also a part of the learning process. Being able to develop people skills through activity was a big part for me growing up. I was able ot grow and develop my interpersonal communication skills. Being outside on a payground forced you to have to interact with someone you didnt know and that put me at an advantage as i got older. Of course people get nervous speaking to other that they dont know but if you've had tons ofpractice it just sort of comes naturally. The kaboom article was really good becasue it brought a community together in order to help create a better future for the children. It helped to uniter a neighborhood. "We now know residents we haven’t seen in decades because they came out for the build". I know if i helped to build a playground i would make sure that my children were there, at the minimal, every weekend. How cool would it be to be that parent that help to build the cool playground down the street?! I would love to be that parent Response 5 According to a study conducted by Sandra in regard to child play, in the past couple of years, a decline in play rate was noted. As part of growing part, children were more so secluded and did not meet their other counterparts to play. In addition, the fear of parents to have their children hurt during play, opted to have them play indoors hence discouraging less outside play. Hence coming up with projects that will enhance more child play will be useful in the society in totality. 6 Karina post: The article, the Power of Play emphasizes much on just how much play is important for a growing child and or infant. The article also goes on to discuss how things such as technology has become a barrier and preventative for children and consumes much of their time. I personally believe play is important, because I grew up playing out doors with other kids in my neighbor hood and it helped me socialize and build social skill. However, in todays society I see my nephew who barely goes out at all and instead plays on the I pad all day long, and sometimes I feel as though he isn’t a kid at all because of the stuff he already knows, because of technology and the fact that he is more interactive with adult like instruments and activities rather than kid appropriate activities such as riding a bike down our block. Moreover, in the article KABOOM it is brought to attention that parents and community members can come together and change this decline of ply time that is taking place. For instance, the community came together and made a change, hence in the article power of play it was stated, “Children do as we do, not as we say. That gives us incentive to bring play back into our adult lives”. Thus, if children see the adults they look up to going out and making a difference and as stated in the article “Despite the way things are, you can rally together and change things. You don’t have to leave it to someone else; you don’t have to wait. It’s about changing the world, your kids can go out into the world saying ‘we built this playground, we acted, we changed something.” Thus, as the article Power of Play stated, “Play is motivated by pleasure. It is instinctive and part of the maturational process”. We as a community need to come together and make this happen. The kids will only do as we do and if we are buried into the television or computer than they will do the same, so instead we need to spend time showing our kids how important it is to be put and play and socialize and make a difference in the community at the same time. Response 6 Based on the response above, it is quite clear that play is I important in the process of development for a child. According to Kaboom, child play has been ignored in the recent past due to coming up with indoor play systems. Kaboom advocates for outside play as it encourages child development and growth. Read More