Play’ refers to the engagement in activity for pleasure, amusement and recreation. Playing plays a significant role in the development of a child’s physical, emotional, social and cognitive skills. it increases stimulation, which in turn acts as an aid in enhancing other processes in the brain such as; thought processes, memory and problem-solving skills- all of which are valuable for the future. In this essay, I am going to be focusing on how ‘play’ contributes to a young child’s cognitive development and whether it is an essential aspect of their childhood.
There are 3 main models of play. The first model states that play is essential for development and without it, a child would not be able to enhance in all areas of development (physical, emotional, social and cognitive). The second model of play suggests that play is only one route to development and that there could be other factors that also affect this. The third model says that play does not contribute to
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The reason for this is that in the appearance condition, the children were shown the external appearance of the object before they are allowed to touch it and discover its real identity. However, in the pretence and function condition, the children are allowed to touch the objects first, which immediately gives them the opportunity to understand the real identity of the object- which corresponds with the results- that the mean proportion of correct responses for the pretence and function condition was higher than appearance. This infers that play does improve a child’s cognitive developmental skills, because when they are given the opportunity to explore and play with the objects, they use the knowledge they already have and other cognitive processes to distinguish between the real identity of the object and the false one. (Flavell et al,