The Science of Play: The Role of Play in Child Development
In today's fast-paced and technology-driven world, children are often bombarded with structured activities, screens, and more from an early age. However, the value of unstructured play to a child's development cannot be overstated. Play is more than just fun and games, it's an important part of a child's growth and well-being. Let’s take a look!
What is play?
The Encyclopedia for Child Development defines ‘play’ as a spontaneous, voluntary, pleasurable, and flexible activity involving a combination of body, object, symbol use, and relationships (i). It is a process of exploring the world around us through imagination, creativity, and self-discovery.
Structured play versus unstructured play
When we talk about play as a whole, we talk about the concept of imaginative and creative exploration. But when we break it down into structured and unstructured play, we begin to see the different impacts each type of play can have on a child’s development and how they create space to teach and explore different skill sets.
Structured play (also referred to as goal-oriented play) centers around an objective or goal. Think of board or card games, puzzles, and organized games such as hopscotch or hide and seek. Structured play teaches children how to recognize patterns, problem-solve, and meet goals. Because structured play is typically facilitated, children follow rules to accomplish an objective while developing and practicing prosocial behaviors around communication, cooperation, and conflict resolution.
Unstructured play (also referred to as free play or child-directed) centers around improvisation and creativity with no set goal or objective. Think of coloring or painting on a blank piece of paper, imaginative play with cardboard boxes, or playing on a playground. While unstructured play creates opportunities to learn and practice many of the skills taught through structured play, an additional layer explores self-agency, social awareness, and executive functioning. In unstructured play, children take creative risks while learning to observe, respond, and adapt to an evolving social climate.
The Impact of Play
When we think of play, we often think of fun and games. But did you know play has a profound impact on our health and well-being? The Learning Through Play initiative at The LEGO Foundation defines five characteristics of play (ii):
Joyful: pleasure, enjoyment, motivation in an activity (an emotion that is associated with increased dopamine levels (a neurotransmitter that makes us feel good) and is linked to the brain’s reward system)
Meaningful: connecting facts and ideas to things we know (a process of connecting the unfamiliar (things new to us) with the familiar that helps us with memory and learning)
Actively engaging: hands-on learning (helps our brain to be fully present in an experience and is related to processes that support learning)
Iterative: trying out and revising (the process of continuous exploration or improvement that helps us to explore new perspectives and ideas)
Socially interactive: understanding and communicating with others (opportunities to engage with peers and caregivers that help us to develop long-lasting, healthy relationships)
Research shows that through these playful experiences, significant impacts on the brain, motor, cognitive, language, and social-emotional development occur alongside strengthened relationships. Play is linked to:
Improved motor skills, strength, and coordination (iii)
Improved attention, mental shifting and problem-solving, memory, and stress regulation (iv)
Development of social-emotional skills such as communication, conflict resolution, empathy, and sharing along with self-regulation, empathy, and social awareness (v)
Expanded language skills and vocabulary (vi)
Strengthened prosocial skills and improved relationship skills (vii)
More Ways to Learn & Play
Backed by the research, play is an integral part of social, emotional, and physical development. Discovering ways to integrate more play into the day can help create space to learn and practice new skills, expand critical thinking, and foster creativity - in children and adults (yes, adults need recess too).
Quick Tips for Creating Space to Play
Adding more play to your day can be as simple or as grand of an adventure as you make it. Here are some quick tips to get you started.
Welcome unstructured play. It can be hard to leave time unaccounted for - especially when balancing busy schedules or multiple priorities. Welcoming unstructured play is as simple as calling out the time for it. Dedicating as little as 15 minutes of free play a day adds almost two hours of play per week.
Schedule play breaks. Building play into a schedule helps to build routine and begin to see it as an essential part of our day - just like mealtimes, exercise, and more.
Use what you have. While we might think of toys and games when hear the word play, it can also mean art supplies, recycled boxes, sheets, etc.
Use cardboard boxes and recycled goods to create something new - a castle? a racecar? or a set of new cardboard dolls? Check out My Good Brain’s partnership with Makedo to learn more about creative play with cardboard.
Have an open art hour - taking blank paper and creating an art walk in your home or classroom.
Make a living room band with household goods - pots and pans drumsets, rice maracas, or silverware tambourines.
Opt outside and explore! Go on a color hunt to find each color of the rainbow or create a backyard scavenger hunt.
Build a fort with sheets and blankets or play dress up with the clothes you have in your closet.
Don’t forget about make-believe! Storytelling is a form of play that you can tap into any time, anywhere. Take turns creating a story that takes you on an adventure.
Resources
Looking for more about the science of play? Check out these resources and follow along for more from My Good Brain.
The LEGO Foundation: Learning Through Play
The LEGO Foundation is on a mission to make learning through play a priority for every child. Find resources digesting research from the field - including an in-depth look at our brains and the impact of play - along with a collection of activities for adding play to your day.
Brought to you by the Toy Association, The Genius of Play connects families and educators with information and tools for creating more playful learning. Here you can learn from experts, find resources like their Summer Playbook, and more.
Playworks is a nonprofit organization dedicated to play - both in school, at home, and in the community. They provide consulting services and local programming for schools and organizations, an online learning portal, and resources like their Game Library and Recess Lab.