PLAYTIME

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The Importance of Play
"Play is your child's "work" and they take it very seriously!"

Play is a very important part of your child's life. Many experts in childhood development regard play as the 'work ' of children. Play helps a child to experiment with their world and enables them to learn new skills. Play can be used as a medium to help therapists interact with children and help them express their feelings and emotions.

Structured play sessions are often used to encourage children to learn new skills. Children's play changes as they grow. The way your child plays can be influenced by a number of factors. These include your role in helping him/her play and explore their world, the environment they are in and the personality and sex of your child.

Types of Play
Research on the benefits of play gives us an understanding of the importance of different types of play in children's development:

• The elaborate pretend games that toddlers and pre-schoolers enjoy so much helps them learn social rules and develop their social skills.
• The rough and tumble games that young boys particularly enjoy help them develop their physical skills in running, jumping etc.

Play is the child's most natural way to learn and should be encouraged by parents.

• Play can also help a child to "act out " their emotional problems and serves as a way of helping them cope with their anxieties and deal with the stresses in their lives. For instance a child who may have witnessed an accident will often act this out in their play, or a child who is coming to terms with the arrival of a new baby will introduce this into their play. This is a very important aspect of the child's play and therapists often use play to help children over come traumas they have suffered.

Some points to remember about your child's play:

• Children love when their parents play with them - be it a tickling session, a hide and seek game or a game with their toys. Remember though, it only stays enjoyable for your child if you play at your child's level. Making a game more complicated than a child is ready for, while making it more interesting for you, will put a child off. It will undermine their sense of competence and their interest in playing that game will disappear.
• Toys are important to children but remember the best toys are not necessarily the most expensive and complex. The cardboard box a toy was packaged in can often provide more enjoyment than the toy itself ! Toys also include the pots and pans that your baby loves to bang and the sweeping brush that your child loves to use to "sweep the floor" just like Mum or Dad.
• Simple toys, like blocks. are a constant favourite of young children. One of the reasons for this is the fact that these toys can become anything in the hands of an imaginative 3 year old, for example a house. horse, rocket, a car etc. Because simple toys can be used in so many ways and to be so many things they remain a favourite of young children.
• Children do a lot of their learning through play so its important that they are given plenty of opportunities to play and given a variety of play materials to play with.

By sharing in and encouraging your child's play you will strengthen your relationship with your child. Your child's most important toy is yourself, children love using their parents to be the horse, the doctor, the lion etc.

Childhood lasts such a short time and today in our busy world it can seem so difficult to give our children plenty of time to play with us.

It is important that you do make that effort to spend relaxed time each day with your child. It gives them a sense of their importance to you, gives them a time when they receive positive feedback from you and definitely makes for a happy child.