THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY IN CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT

The 5 Developmental Domains of Play

Developmentally

Appropriate Play

Physical

Creative

Cognitive

Language and Literacy

Social and Emotional

Play is essential to healthy development and learning. It’s self-

chosen, about personal enjoyment, and the process rather than the outcome.

Through play, children can: make sense of their world, expand social/cultural

understandings, express personal thoughts/feelings, practice flexible/ divergent thinking, encounter and

solve problems, learn other peoples perspectives, negotiate play roles,

develop self control, extend language/ literacy skills and enhance brain and

motor development. All in which can be broken down into five developmental domains that are

listed below.

Barb Cranston andAmy NormanCD 1011Grande Prairie Regional CollegeNovember 26, 2013

“Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn

how to learn.” ~ O. Fred Donaldson

“Play is the highest form of research.” ~ Albert Einstein

COGNITIVECognitive play includes: functional, constructive, and symbolic play.Cognitive development through play includes: divergent thinking, problem solving, flexible thinking, and negotiation skills.

The children in the pictures are developing the cognitive aspect by problem solving; trying different routes and making their own routes by moving and adjusting the walls. They are thinking flexibly through trial and error; coming to a dead end and having turn around or alter the wall.

LANGUAGE AND LITERACYLanguage and literacy includes: vocabulary, sounds, rules of language, and sentence structure. Being able to communicate with others and expressing emotion using words and expressions.

The two boys in the picture above are playing alongside each other with skipping ropes. They are developing their vocabulary by talking together. They are also learning to express emotion when one boy doesn’t like the others ideas and when they agree on one thing and get excited about it.

CREATIVECreative play is when children use their imagination to problem-solve, use objects in unique ways and shows originality.

The above photo illustrates two young boys pretending to be Mario & Luigi, saving Barb from the skipping ropes. They are using their imaginations when role playing specific characters and pretending the ropes are chains. The children are problem solving by exploring different ways to free Barb from the chains.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONALSocial play includes: unoccupied, solitary, parallel, associative, and cooperative play.Social and emotional play includes: being aware of their own feeling as well as others, attitudes, sharing, teamwork, problem solving, vocabulary, cooperation, and compromising.

The photo above shows three boys playing together socially. The children are working together as a team, they are sharing, and they are compromising to satisfy all ideas. They are working together to build a ship, all their ideas can be compromised into their creation.

PHYSICALPhysical development within play includes: Gross motor skills and fine motor skills.Some examples of gross motor skills are running, jumping, skipping, throwing, and climbing. Some examples of fine motor skills are grasping objects or pointing fingers and toe.

The above photo shows the physical development of both gross and fine motor skills. Fine motor skills: grasping the hoola hoop.Gross motor skills: hips rotating and arms swinging.