What Is the Importance of Play in Early Childhood?

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Play has an essential role in a person's development, as it enables the individual to gain a more complex understanding of the world around him or her and as it is basically a learning tool that children use with the purpose to overcome challenges, experience pleasure, and become more motivated. Children are in a position where they are obsessed with learning and as they grow up they get actively involved in a struggle to be perceived as intelligent individuals and as equal to everyone else. Play is largely a condition in which children experiment with things they learnt and try to take on attitudes people generally interpret as 'childish', only to actually significantly improve their cognitive skills.

Individuals in the contemporary society have access to information and tools they can effectively use with the purpose of improving the social order as a whole. By acknowledging the important connection between childhood and the brain's development, one can the time he or she spends with children with the purpose of assisting them improve their cognitive abilities. "The brain grows fastest in the first 5 years of life and the wiring of the brain makes multiple and complicated neuron connections that in many ways decide our future ability to learn, achieve and be happy." (Children play their way to learning)

Even with the fact that play has become increasingly popular among developmental psychologists in the present, the world was familiarized with its importance long before modern psychology addressed the matter. "Since the time of the classic Greek philosophers, play has been considered the characteristic mode of behaviour of the young child, an expression of the natural spirit of childhood and thus a key defining feature of childhood" (Kernan, p. 5) The complexity of play makes it somewhat difficult to provide a simple definition of the topic, as it entails a series of perspectives, experiences, and expectations associated with humans in general.

Play is important because of the way it prepares the brain to deal with future impediments. The numerous neuronal connections that occur as a consequence of a child playing are probable to make the respective child experienced with a series of problems in the future. As they play, children access a set of ideas that enrich their imagination and their general perspective on the world. In addition to taking on roles they observe in adults, children also learn more about how to develop relationships and about what activities are most likely to reflect positively on their personality.

Play can largely be considered to be a multi-tasking sort of experience. It provides children with a wide range of emotions and information that build their perception of the world. "Play is not about completing one task at a time but about dealing with multiple tasks such as relationships, activities, problem solving, other peoples' ideas and creating companionship and enjoyment, all at the same time." (Children play their way to learning) Play directly improves neuronal connections as it makes it possible for children to experience a rapid influx of information while having fun.

Many individuals fail to comprehend the importance of play in children's lives and often tend to compare it with concepts like work. Numerous adults are likely to believe that play actually contrasts work and that it would be wrong for someone mature to appreciate it as an action that can benefit society. However, the reality is that play enables people to develop properly and without it the world would be a much more broken environment. "Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species, alongside language, culture and technology." (Whitebread, p. 3) It is thus important for a tutor to provide a child with the opportunity to play as much as possible, as the abilities that he or she can gain in the process are going to reflect on his development as an adult. With numerous issues experience a constant increase as a person grows older, it is thus important for him or her to have had the chance to develop. A person who did not play enough as a child is less likely to be able to deal with life's challenges (Whitebread, p. 3).

Individuals in charge of taking care of young children need to be able to deliver exemplary behaviors, as their involvement in the children's upbringing is likely to reflect on how these respective children perceive life as adults. "Most early practitioners are familiar with the practical justifications for all kinds of play provision, and make genuine efforts to explain these to parents: the value of learning to discriminate shapes and sounds; the experience of volume and capacity; the sensory learning derived from malleable materials; the expressive value of imaginative play." (Broadhead, Howard, & Wood, 2010, p. 33) Role playing is particularly important when it comes to children, as they practically go through an experience that prepares them to deal with life -- they practice behaving like an adult.