Importance of Play in childhood

[Paladin-X]

In my development psych class, we were covering early childhood and the importance of play for children to learn and grow. My prof played a very informative video for us that I thought I'd share:

[video=youtube;oiDV6uOY9QI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiDV6uOY9QI[/video]

 

[CindyLou]

Thanks Paladin-X

 

[Vict]

Common with most mammals, no? Play as training. Rough housing as conditioning for the hunt and defense.

 

[Paladin-X]

[MENTION=5297]Neverwhere[/MENTION], [MENTION=4871]CindyLou[/MENTION], [MENTION=3240]Jill Hives[/MENTION], [MENTION=4956]charlene[/MENTION]

I'm not sure how young your little ones are, but here's some fun you can have with them if they are between 2 and 6:

[video=youtube;gnArvcWaH6I]http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=gnArvcWaH6I[/video]

 

[Paladin-X]

Common with most mammals, no? Play as training. Rough housing as conditioning for the hunt and defense.

You would think. Apparently kindergarten is becoming more about academic preparation, rather than just playing. It's the same problem with too many organized activities. It's important to just let them play, especially with other kids, in whatever games they normally come up with.

 

[tfg345i4u5lw]

I agree with the video 100% and this is partially tied to the topic of dealing with failure. I believe kids should be exposed to "controlled danger". Meaning they should be allowed to experiment and discover life's risk parameters to a certain extent. Obviously you shouldn't let your kid swim with sharks but limited freedom is important.

And I agree with the part about structure too. Too much structure is bad, the kid will grow up institutionalized and not know what to do with themselves as adults.

 

[this is only temporary]

You know, there really aren't enough thumbs up to give to this thread. Quadruple thumbs up to you all.