Discuss The Impact Of Play On Hospitalized Children

The experience of being hospitalized can be daunting for children, disrupting their normal routines, and causing anxiety and distress. Amidst the clinical environment and medical procedures, ensuring that children in hospitals have opportunities for play is vital for their emotional well-being, development, and overall healing process. However, the extent and quality of play experiences for hospitalized children are influenced by various policy factors that shape the healthcare environment. These policy factors have a range of considerations, including hospital protocols, staffing levels, funding allocations, and regulatory frameworks. Understanding the impact of these policy factors is crucial for improving the play experience of children

Play is the way children interact with the world. It is through play that children understand each other and make sense of the world around them, it is freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated. Children play for no external goal or reward, they do it simply because they want to. Play is a way children can improve their cognitive, problem-solving, physical, mental, and social skills; they do this through an array of different activities such as playing a sport or talking with their friends. They also learn skills they need for school, work, and relationships such as: confidence, discipline, empathy, trust, honesty, teamwork, and an excellent work ethic. Also, physical play can be beneficial for a child's growth, but most importantly, playing can help in a child’s social development by listening and paying attention to others. There are three main forms of play, which are physical, social and construction. Each has its own benefits, the advantages of physical play on a child are critical for their growth, fitness, strength, balance and dexterity, a child can experience these benefits by playing something as simple as catch with a parent. The advantages of social play for children are crucial if you want them to succeed in school or work, the benefits of this form of play are that it encourages children to lead and support their friends and helps them show respect towards others. Finally, construction play, there are a wide range of benefits from construction play such as developing children's motor skills, problem-solving skills, imagination and developing their mathematical