The Importance Of Play In Children's Development

Play is a cherished part of childhood which may contribute towards many benefits in children’s lives. Therefore, play is necessary in children’s development, they grow by playing with or without purpose. Play gives children fun, joy, amusement and motivation to encourage them to continue playing. In addition, through play children develops their social, cognitive, physical and emotional skills. (Galiguzova, 1995) stated that children’s play is filled with repetitions and imaginations based on what the children have seen, heard and experienced. Play is a way for children to explore their surrounding world with creativity and fantasy. However, Anderson, Huston. Schmitt, Linegarger and Wrigest (2001) described that “Young children’s creativity

Through play children can understand each other and make sense of the world around them. Therefore, when children learn from play, it teaches them social skills such as taking turns, sharing, tolerance and self-discipline from others. Children likes to play as there is no right way or wrong way, they can use their imagination to develop games and interact with each other without being in an adult-led environment. Play is a very emotive word which means different things to different people and has been defined in many ways. The meaning of play has been debated by philosophers and academics for centuries and was recognised as far as Plato who is quoted as saying ‘avoid compulsion and let your child play’! In the last century, according to David Lloyd George (1926), “Play is the right to play is a child’s first claim on the community and play is nature’s training for life. No community can infringe that right without doing deep and enduring harm to the minds and bodies of its citizens.” However, play did gain a wider recognition under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 in which Article 31 recognises the rights of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the children’s age and to participate freely in cultural life and the

Video games are highly engaging among young children and there is a great interest in how to strap their power to support learning. Researchers have studied that educational games and simulations to determine how children can effectively support their learning.

Moreover, educational games and simulations have been found to be effective in motivating and encouraging for children to learn (Ke, 2008; Papastergiou, 2009; Tuzun, Yilmaz-Soylu, Karakus, Inal, & Kizilkaya, 2009), and games that boost exploration may be particularly engaging to children, especially girls (Kinzie & Joseph, 2008). Discover Babylon game is one of the example that fosters exploration in which children travel through Mesopotamian time by using math, reading and writing skills.

Some computer games allow children to explore and create materials that they could not work directly in their real life. For instance, Chemsense which provides children to construct their own representations and animations. Therefore, these open environments also can help children to correct their errors in their thinking by allowing them to test out hypotheses. Simulations enable children to develop their familiarity with an activity before they engage in it. Children who use simulations, they feel more confident in their skills when later working with real materials