How Much Do We Know About The Importance Of Play In Child Development

I reviewed two peer reviewed scholarly journal articles: “How Much Do We Know About the Importance of Play in Child Development” by Ling-Ling Tsao and “The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Center Bonds” by Kenneth R. Ginsburg. There are many benefits that occur from play. Play enhances cognitive development, provides emotional and social skills, improves language development, and creativity. There are, however, societal factors that limit the amount of play that children can partake in. Factors that influence children from not receiving the full benefits of play are: a hurried lifestyle, a push for academic success, and extracurricular activities.
“How Much Do We Know About the Importance

Therefore, play can be an important educational strategy for facilitating children’s development in cognitive, social/emotional, motor, and language area (Tsao, 2002, p. 231). The use of pretend play reinforces the abstract thought process and problem-solving techniques that child need to be successful in life. Freud, Erickson, Piaget, and Vygotsky theories believe that there is a connection between the development of a child and play. Play allows children to transform reality and development symbolic representations of the world in order to meet psychological and physical needs. Play can increase mastery of skills and promote higher level thinking.
Through role play, it can enhance intellectual development. The notion that play can lead to development of problem solving skills, creativity, divergent thinking, and language acquisition is profoundly influenced by Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories (Tsao, 2002, p. 231). Make believe play allows a child to be creative and allows the child to use large amounts of language skills. By looking at the parental relationship with the child, it would also give a good indicator of intellectual development: the greater the bond between the child and parent the greater effect it would have on the

Tao states, popular children at school tend to be considered friendly, are usually more intelligent, demonstrate high academic performance, and have strong self-esteem. Where children who lack such social skills are more likely to be rejected (Tsao, 2002, p. 233). Ginsburg feels, parents who share unscheduled spontaneous time with their children and who play with their children are being wonderfully supportive, nurturing, and productive (Ginsburg, 2007, p. 187). It is important that children feel they have the required love and stability for healthy emotional