How Play Benefits your Child

When children play, it might look like they’re taking a break from serious learning. But in fact, play is their way of learning. When your child plays peekaboo, board games, shopkeeper and customer – well, when they engage in ANY kind of play activity – they develop both physically, cognitively, and socially.

Highlights:  

• When children play, they experiment with life itself and all its facets.
• Children play to understand themselves and the world around them.
• The developmental benefits of play are endless, but they can be grouped into:
• Physical benefits: play helps your child develop great motor skills.
• Cognitive benefits: play is your child’s way of processing information.
• Social benefits: play is the most direct way your child can connect with others.  

Play is Learning 

Little babies who reach out to touch their parents’ smiling faces naturally develop their gross motor skills and sense of touch. Toddlers who playfully drop toys to the floor learn to understand the concept of gravity. And a group of older children who role play a birthday party build strong, social relations and develop their language skills while playing.   

“When children play, they experiment with life itself and all its facets. They dream, tell stories, make up worlds of fantasy, and they do this to learn about life, to understand the world around them, and to become familiar with their own role in this world," explains expert in children’s play, Joern Martin Steenhold.   

The developmental benefits of play are endless, but they can be grouped into three main areas: physical benefits, cognitive benefits, and social benefits.   

• Physical Benefits

• Cognitive Benefits 

• Social Benefits