Many parents intuitively believe in the importance of playing in their children’s development. However, do you know that playing outdoors can boost your child’s learning? Most people define learning as acquiring a new skill, such as memorizing an alphabet, counting, writing, etc.
That’s not true. Children can learn from playing as well. Kids playing with outdoor playground equipment and indoor games allows them to learn new things. It sharpens their mind and boosts their self-confidence and self-esteem. Read on to find the benefits of playing in a child’s growth and development.
Different Types of Play are Essential for Overall Child Growth
Children need to participate in various play activities as they age to boost their chances of acquiring several skills, including social, emotional, cognitive, motor, and language abilities. It is best to play with preschool playground equipment from a young age. Here are different types of play essential for your kids:
Indoor play is beneficial for young toddlers:
Indoor play activities include preschool playground equipment like playing with toys, building blocks, board games, spelling games, and jigsaw puzzles.
Outdoor play for young children in the accessible playground:
Outdoor games like hide & seek, hopscotch, hula hoops, balloon tossing, and obstacle courses. Moreover, playing with kids’ outdoor playground equipment will strengthen their muscle development. Allow your child enough time to play and enjoy himself while considering all of these benefits.
Guided Play:
Guided play is defined as play that an adult supervises. The child-directedness of free play is combined with an emphasis on learning goals and outcomes in this form of learning. Guided play experience usually reflects the unit of inquiry. Adults may help children learn meaningfully by providing high-quality planned play experiences that are both pleasant and challenging.
They learn to endure, enhance their capacity to pay attention and participate, develop flexibility in their thinking as they work towards their goal, and reflect on the process.
Free Play:
Free play is a play that the child initiates and selects. Experiences are chosen through interests and passions or social ties. Free play is frequently defined as child-directed, voluntary, and internally driven. Through free play, children can make decisions about their learning and set their own goals.
Freedom of choice is intrinsically motivating since no adult-imposed external expectations or conceptions exist. Teachers pay attention and follow their students’ lead. Teachers can use curriculum design to capitalize on students’ strengths and interests.
Counting benefits of play in your child’s development
The benefits of play for young children include improved cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development. Let’s learn the benefits of playing in accessible playground boosts your child’s development:
Linguistic advancement: While playing, children talk with one another, which promotes language development. It allows them to communicate more successfully, especially while speaking and listening. Even when children pretend to play with their dolls, they use their language abilities. They improve their ability to convey language through role-playing with proper tone and vocal modulation. As a result, their pronouncing ability increases. Children acquire new words when they participate in various play activities. Their vocabulary expands as a result.
Social advancement: Playtime with pals or role-playing exercises helps your child’s social skills develop. The child learns to be courteous to her teammates, considerate of her team and the enemy, and avoid rough play. Playing gives them confidence and self-worth. While playing, your small child learns the value of cooperation and teamwork. Furthermore, your child’s play helps them develop important leadership skills.
Physical development: Playing with your child guarantees healthy growth. Holding, gripping, and grabbing toys and other preschool playground equipment strengthens motor skills. Moreover, running, skipping, throwing balls, hauling the toy cart and other heavy objects, peddling the miniature tricycle, and other activities all help their gross motor abilities improve. These activities help them to enhance muscular control, balance, limb coordination, and control of body motions.
Development of the emotions: All play activities require your child to show his emotions, whether by clapping his hands in excitement, clenching his fists in wrath, or tugging at his hair in frustration. Your child will not only learn to convey his emotions but also to regulate his impulses and emotions, which are both important life lessons. Furthermore, winning a game will boost your confidence, but failing to do so will teach him to accept failure in the right spirit and learn from the experience. As a result of this, he will grow into an emotionally resilient adult.
Wrapping Up:
Young children’s development depends on the play. Children learn about the world around them through play while developing crucial cognitive, social, emotional, and physical skills. To ensure that children develop the skills they require to thrive, parents, carers, and educators must provide them with many opportunities to play, both structured and unstructured.
Playground Equipment can boost your child’s development journey. All Play is your partner in choosing accessible playground equipment for your backyard or playground. Visit our website to explore our services.
As parents, you wish to give your kids the best experiences. You want them to have fun, learn, and grow both physically and emotionally. Inclusive games can provide your children with these experiences while fostering qualities like teamwork, cooperation, and decision-making. Here are five inclusive games that your children will love.
Capture The Flag
It is a classic game that requires a minimum of six players divided into two teams of three players each. Each team chooses a flag of different colours, and the players of opposite teams try to capture the other team’s flag to win the game.
This game requires minimalistic equipment and is easy to play outdoors, making it a great option for Kids outdoor playgrounds. It helps build a feeling of partnership and decision-making that can benefit children in their future decisions and job experiences.
Football
Football is a popular sport that most children play, even if they don’t know the rules. All they need is a football and a net to play it. This game involves physical activities like running and jumping, which ensures the proper stretching and development of body muscles.
While it is a fun game, parents should ensure their children do not get hurt while playing football. It is always better for children to play football under the supervision of an adult to ensure their safety.
Kick The Can
Kick The Can is another classic game that requires only a can, making it easy to play anywhere. The players choose an ‘It’ who counts to 100 after placing the can upright while the others hide. After the counting ends, the ‘It’ declares that he is beginning his hunt to find the hidden players. If one of the hidden players kicks the can, the ‘It’ loses. However, if the ‘It’ finds one of the hidden players and kicks the can first, he wins.
Kick The Can is an easy and fun game to play during summer when children have finished their fruit juice cans.
Sensory Scavenger Hunt
In this game, the children choose an ‘It’, and the others have to give him objects with the texture that the ‘It’ declares. For example, if the ‘It’ says that he wants soft things, all the children hunt for soft things around them, like a ball or a fruit.
This game is simple to play and doesn’t require any playground equipment for kids, but an adult should supervise the matches as the children may touch something that can harm them.
Arts and Crafts
If children feel lazy or want to relax, they can entertain themselves with arts and crafts. Parents should provide their children with the required arts and crafts supplies to enhance their creative side. Arts and crafts are not only a fun way to spend time but also an adequate means of promoting creativity and improving fine motor skills in children. Providing children with the necessary supplies and allowing them to engage in arts and crafts activities are great ways to foster their creative growth and keep them entertained for hours.
To Sum It Up
Taking care of the physical and emotional development of a child is not a simple task. If the children play in an outdoor playground, parents should ensure the swings and slides in the playground are safe and sturdy for their children. In such cases, you can trust All Play. All Play provides high-quality commercial playground equipment for your kids.
If you wish to know more about playground equipment by All Play, contact them at (713) 939-9888 for a quote.
Inclusive games can provide your children with valuable experiences that can benefit them. So, encourage your children to play these games and watch them physically and emotionally grow.
Playing in childhood is traditionally associated with fun and enjoyment. Children themselves might perceive it as a mere joyful activity. However, many people are oblivious to the fact that play constitutes an important part of life for child development. There are plenty of playgrounds in Houston for the 39% of households having children. This can be a very good place of learning for children, apart from the schools.
It is by playing together that makes children learn to socialize. From forming bonds of friendship to gaining life experiences, outdoor playing is indispensable to child development. Research in this area has revealed the physical and mental benefits playing can impart to children. After reading this blog, you will be completely aware of the importance of play in a child’s development. These benefits would surely provoke you to make daily rounds to playgrounds in Houston with your kids.
Playing supports physical development
The physical activity of kids these days has taken a hit due to gadgets. There has to be a fine balance between the screen time and outdoor playing time of the child.
Sending kids to playgrounds in Houston offer the following benefits:
- Strengthens muscles and bones: Playing is a kind of exercise generating strain on body muscles. The repeated strain is the key to increasing their strength. Also, children are exposed to sunlight while playing outside, which can provide vitamin D. Thereby improving bone growth.
- Reduces obesity: About 34% of children aged 12 and over in Houston are obese, as per the health department figures. This is due to the fact that kids spend less time on playgrounds in Houston and more before computers. Playing an hour a day prevents the incidence of obesity in children.
- Improved sleep: Getting tired during play eventually contributes to undisturbed sleep. Moreover, kids wake up more refreshed if they had a good game before going to sleep.
Mental development in kids
Scientific research has shown that there is a relationship between playing outdoors and the intelligence of children.
The playgrounds in Houston can spark creativity and offer several advantages:
- Develop leadership skills: Kids often enjoy the leadership positions in the games of their choice. This is when their leadership skills sharpen. Play helps the children recognize their true talent.
- Critical thinking: The freedom to make decisions and mistakes during play does develop critical thinking. Playing allows the unlimited use of imagination which culminates into greater creativity.
- Intelligence development: The higher cognitive processing area of the brain benefits most while playing. The activity of playing for a longer duration can increase the ability to focus. It can be helpful for other long-term tasks that need focusing. Thus, playing at the playgrounds of Houston can make your child intelligent!
Apart from this, playing also nourishes the social and emotional development of children. Kids experience a range of emotions when they play, which helps them to overcome problems. As playing involves socializing with other kids, it teaches children to be patient.
To be independent and also learn collaboration. All in all, it is highly required for parents to encourage their kids to visit playgrounds in Houston.
