The importance of play to improve our children's development

By Ana Elisa Pérez Finol

The long-awaited day has arrived! Our most precious treasure starts the school term, and we wonder: how to face this situation in post-pandemic time?

Play is a fundamental activity for the development and learning of children, as it allows them to enhance their imagination, explore the environment in which they develop, express their particular vision of the world, manifesting it through their creativity through oral and body language, and the development of socioemotional and psychomotor skills that materialize from their relationship with peers and adults.

More than just an opportunity to have fun, play enriches the brain, the body and the life of the child in a very important way, as it affects their development and healthy growth. Playing improves our little ones' ability to plan, organize, relate and regulate their emotions. In addition, it helps them with language, the development of different skills and even, through play, they can cope with stress.

In the youngest children, learning is best stimulated through playful activities. This allows them to acquire skills that strengthen teamwork and foster creativity and innovation. Playing helps our children to create affective bonds that generate security and stability in them, which protects them against stress and helps them to generate emotional resilience.

Some contributions of play in children, which we can refer to, are the following:

1. Physical contributions
   It enables different movements that exercise children, improving their psychomotor coordination. This allows them to sleep better during the night and tends to reduce the risk of overweight and obesity.
2. Sensory and mental development
   It allows them to learn to discriminate shapes, sizes, colors, smells and textures.
3. Affective contributions
   It allows them to experience and recognize diverse emotions, such as surprise, joy, sadness, amazement, fear, among others.
4. Creativity and imagination
   Innate elements of play that promote interaction with peers and adults. Therefore, play has an impact on the establishment of affective bonds that foster cooperation, empathy and security in children.

Offering a child the opportunity to play is one of the best ways to help them grow into curious, creative, healthy and happy adults. Don't miss the opportunity to share with your child the joy of discovering new experiences while connecting with each other and the world around them.

Ana Elisa Pérez Finol
Professor UEES School of Education