Learning Through Play: The Benefits For Child Development

Play is extremely important for young children’s development and as a parent, you are your child’s first teacher. Much of the teaching you direct to your child at an early age comes from learning through play. Play starts when your child is an infant and helps them develop critical skills related to what is expected of them, how they should act in society, and more. Here are just a few of the many benefits of learning through play:

1. Improves Motor Skills
   Gross motor skills, which occur first, are the movements your child makes with their larger muscles such as their arms and legs. Later on, young children will develop fine motor skills. This type of motor skill pertains to actions they take using smaller muscles such as their hands, fingers, and wrists.

   Throughout childhood, learning through play activities such as crawling, climbing, reaching, and grabbing work to develop necessary motor skills needed later in life. For example, walking, running, and writing. Ultimately, play benefits children’s motor development by encouraging movement, supporting balance, and understanding the idea of space.

2. Fosters Effective Language and Communication Skills

   For infants, learning through play fosters effective language and communication skills through the experiences they have with people and the objects around them. When infants engage in non-verbal communication such as making sounds, caregivers typically respond positively or imitate these sounds. This reinforces the infant’s understanding that their behavior has an effect on others. As a result, infants will continue to produce more sounds to create a response from others which sets the foundation for later social experiences. 

   For toddlers, learning through play can foster effective language and communication skills through positive and educational play. As toddlers begin to develop verbal communication skills, they will imitate the behavior and language of others. Interacting with parents and other playing partners enables them to focus on the sounds of speech by listening to others. In addition, when parents participate in simple activities with their toddler such as rolling a ball back and forth, it helps develop ideas such as taking turns. The idea of turn-taking is important for the development of interactive and conversational skills. 

3. Builds Problem Solving Skills
   Learning through play also supports the development of problem-solving skills in infants and toddlers. Young children are constantly exploring and often make accidental discoveries. For example, hitting a button on a toy and hearing it make a sound. However, over time, they will realize that they were, in fact, the ones who made the toy make a sound. As a result, they will be able to understand that they can purposely carry out these types of actions on the toy.

4. Helps With Processing Emotions
   Infants and young toddlers are not able to understand and verbalize how they feel. Although, through play, your infant or toddler is given an outlet to express their feelings and emotions in healthy ways. For example, playing with their favorite toy can help reduce any stress or frustration they may be experiencing. Learning through play helps build your little one’s creativity through pretend play.

5. Promotes Creativity
   Toddlers typically begin to participate in pretend play between 14 and 18 months. Through pretend play, your toddler is able to break out of reality, come up with their own ideas, and bring them to life. For example, by imagining a cardboard box as a car or building blocks as a house. As a result of using their imagination, it increases their creativity and ability to imagine even bigger things.