What Every Parent Should Know About Play

Play can benefit children in many ways—from helping them learn valuable skills to improving their health. Despite the many benefits that play provides, many parents tend to underestimate its value in favor of more structured forms of learning. However, learning comes in many different forms, and neglecting play could unnecessarily limit your child’s development. To better understand the importance of this childhood pastime, here’s a list of what every parent should know about play.

Play can help your child develop many important skills

Play isn’t just a fun way for your child to spend time; it serves an important role in a child’s development. Because learning comes in many forms, it’s important not to limit your child’s education to only structured forms. One of the main ways that children learn valuable skills is through play. Examples of the many different types of skills that children can learn through play include:

• Cognitive skills: Children can develop their ability to process thoughts, remember, reason, pay attention, and problem-solve during play.
• Social skills: When playing with other children, play can help kids develop valuable social and relationship skills such as communication and trust.
• Emotional skills: When gaining experience cooperating, taking turns, sharing, and playing with other kids in a respectful way, play allows kids to develop their emotional skills.
• Physical skills: Playing help children develop spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, agility, balance, and other physical skills.

Play can help improve your child’s health

In addition to helping your child develop many important skills, play can also have a positive impact on your child’s health. For example, play can help reduce stress by providing an outlet for children’s anxiety. When engaging in outdoor or active play, children can further benefit as it will help them get important exercise. As such, play can benefit both the mental and physical health of children.

There are many different types of play

There isn’t one specific type of play that children should engage in. Play can be simple or complex, so naturally there are numerous different forms of play. For example, there is onlooker play where children simply observe, solitary play such as playing with blocks on one’s own, parallel play where children play side-by-side with other children, and cooperative play where children collaborate during play. All forms of play have different advantages, and it is important to let your child explore multiple avenues of play as they grow and develop, which will help expand their capabilities and skills.

At Safari Ltd., we understand the value that play can provide children of all ages. Through creating our educational Toys That Teach line, our goal is to help children learn valuable life skills though the joy of play. Our toys are carefully crafted from safe and sustainable materials and are designed to help educate children about the importance of nature and its conservation. To provide your kids with the materials they need to play, learn, and grow, buy our educational toys today.