Page 12 - Gaceta Idiomas abr 21

Field of study perspectives Field of study perspectives
The importance of play in children
for their development
By: Montserrat Avalos Saldaña
8th level
Teacher: Edgar Martínez Ramírez
Abstract
More than just an opportunity for fun, play is serious when it comes to a child’s health and
development. Children’s play is defined as a pleasant, free and spontaneous activity, without
a specific purpose, but highly useful for the child’s development. ... Experts have pointed out
the characteristics of the game: It is done simply for pleasure (Bastidas, 2006).
The American Academy of Pediatrics clinical report, “The Power of Play: Its Pediatric Role
in Enhancing the Development of Young Children” explains how and why playing with both
parents and other children is critical to developing better thriving brains, bodies and social ties;
All of these things are important in today’s world. Research shows that playing can improve
children‘s abilities to plan, organize, get along with others, and regulate their emotions. In
addition, play helps with language, math and social skills, and even helps children cope with
stress.
Introduction:
Currently we live immersed in a globalized, updated and new world; Especially since as of
the end of 2019 the world was paralyzed since the appearance of the COVID-19 virus, forcing
society to take measures to prevent the spread of this virus and prevent infections and the
death of more people. One of the measures that was taken was a quarantine that has been
going on for more than 8 months, restricting attendance at crowded spaces including school.
Children’s play is defined as a pleasant, free and spontaneous activity, without a specific
purpose, but highly useful for the child’s development (Ramírez, 2005). The connotations of
pleasant, free and spontaneous games are fundamental and for this reason we must guarantee
them with our intelligent accompaniment.
Some features of the game are:
• It is done simply for pleasure.
• It is freely chosen.
• It requires an active participation of the child, which will connect him with aspects of culture. Gómez Ramírez, J. (02 de Febrero de 2015). El juego infantil y su importancia en
• It Promotes social development and creativity.
• It is at the very foundation of culture.
Locke‘s theory mentions that the child plays responding to the need to recreate, to reintegrate
lost forces. It would be something comparable to food or sleep. He started from the vulgar
concept of the adult, who plays to rest. This criterion still assists many teachers when they
release their students to recess after study. In another field, it would be, like the game of soccer
after leaving the office. In the child, the opposite happens, the more he plays more, the more
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rested he is. Fatigue inhibits playful activity.
On the other hand, Beneke’s theory and perfected by H. Spencer, mentions that the child plays
to rid his body of an excess of energy. Among other arguments, they argue that the child has a
thick adipose panniculus, meaning an accumulation of energy. Spencer added that this surplus
of energy was spent in the imitation of serious and useful activities, done in a disinterested
way (serious and useful activity, but interested, would be work, the other pole of the game).
But every doctor knows that assimilation processes prevail in childhood, that this is a time
of formation and storage.
It has been said, and rightly so, that just as good nutrition is necessary for growth, play is
essential for development; If we take into account that children are the engines of their own
development, the intelligent and affectionate accompaniment that we must provide them
as adults implies allowing them that agency that is so essential and so important that play
encourages and that enables the child to develop their creativity and lead to carrying out a
large number of favorable actions for life, such as, for example, social preparations, conflict
resolution and the creation of a series of relationships that will be decisive during his life.
Playing is a fundamental part of human development, the joy of living and continuous learning.
Playing -as well as creating and using toys- requires imagination, knowledge, skills and many
other capacities (Gómez, 2015). Toys enhance and develop fantasy, creativity, exploration
and discovery, imagination, abstraction, and planning. In addition, they trigger learning in the
cognitive area, skills, attitudes and affections and, very especially, in acquiring and applying
values. Without a doubt, they are essential in the acquisition of skills. They are, at the same
time, basic to develop and learn roles; especially those of gender. Among other characteristics
-which, incidentally, add value to them in the psycho and in neurodiagnosis- include being
socializing elements, vehicles for the expression of dreams and frustrations, and indispensable
tools for fine and gross psychomotor development. As if all this were not enough, they
undoubtedly favor the child’s interaction with his parents and peers (Gómez, 2015).
Games are not leisure as many times parents, educators or adults call it, it is very important
for the development of the child due to the various characteristics already mentioned above,
currently playing in groups cannot be given easily, especially with children who have no
siblings or live far from relatives or peers. The task in these times is up to the parents, to share
quality time with the child, enjoy, imagine and play without rules unless the game needs it.
REFERENCES:
Bastidas M, Posada Á, Ramírez H. Crecimiento y desarrollo. En Correa JA,
Gómez JF, Posada R. Fundamentos de pediatría. Tomo 1 (pp. 25-77). 3ª ed. Medellín: CIB; 2006.
Ramírez H. El juego infantil. En Posada Á, Gómez JF, Ramírez H. El niño sano
(pp. 315-26). 3a ed. Bogotá, D.C.: Editorial Médica Panamericana; 2005.
Definición. (20 de Marzo de 2014). Definición de grupos. Recuperado de https://definicion.mx/grupos/.
el desarrollo. Educación inicial. Recuperado de http://educacioninicial.mx/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/El-Juego-Infantil-y-su-Impor-
tancia-en-el-Desarrollo.pdf
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