Play time is a crucial part of children development. A child’s environment and leisure time can help shape their social and cognitive development. Depending on the playground, structured or unstructured, they also play an important role in physical strength and balance. The right equipment and playground design offer your child the best way to grow and develop essential skills. Choosing the right leisure space for your kid entails knowing how it can affect their overall growth. Whether it would be a school or church playground, understanding the effects of a leisure space to your child can be a game changer.
Whether you leave your children out to play on the church, school, or park playgrounds, letting them enjoy their time not only helps improve disposition but it can be as beneficial to them as they grow. According to Fast Company, even President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the importance of placing children in the right playing space. The president previously urged the National Playgrounds Council members to consider what children prefer playing on and with. To quote Roosevelt: “Philanthropists often establish such excellent but minute and over precautionary regulations that nobody will inhabit them.”
Kids Safe Western Australia supports the impact of playgrounds and playground equipment on children. Leaving children to explore the church playground or school play area offers the following opportunities:
Imagination And Creativity
Outdoor play follows an open-ended nature. This means it is not a constructed or strictly implemented activity. Kids have to come up with ways to play with the equipment provided. They do not follow strict instructions, thus the child is free to create the types of games they wish to play.
Social Skills
It is highly likely that your child is not the only kid on the playground. This exposes them to other people allowing your kid to communicate and collaborate with those around them. At some point, they can also learn to share and empathize with others. They learn how to deal with different types of playmates and come up with compromises to allow other individuals in their activity. It can also teach them how to tweak games depending on the playmate they have.
Problem Solving And Thinking Skills
This is related to creativity. When faced with different play settings, your child is required to evaluate risks and face new challenges. They also learn how to let things go or develop ways how to share and coordinate with those using the same area. These are related to developing creativity and imagination. Playground equipment somewhat comes as a fixed asset. This means, people or children using it usually have to think of ways on how to use it given its stagnant or fixed role. Children learn how to make things interesting when placed in such a setting.
Sense Of Self
Kids Safe noted that children master new plays and skills as they are exposed to other kids while in the playground. Eventually, they get to hone their confidence and competence. They learn more about their social aptness and physical strength. In time, they identify their strengths and weaknesses. This is also related to sense of self-care. Kids eventually figure out how to take care of themselves when exposed to different environments and individuals when playing.
Creativity Theories consider play as a universal trait. Humans and animals alike do it. It is an integral part of human development especially learning and creativity. Studies found that children playing supports understanding and contextualization. Your child develops a better perspective of the world and themselves while they play. They go through different situations more capable because their deducing powers develop as they are continually exposed to the activity. These traits cannot just be learned inside the classroom but through experiences. There are some perceptions and abilities that cannot develop just by reading or knowing about them.
Playing gives children the exposure that prompts them to develop essential life skills. Creativity Theories cites Schiller and Spencer back in the 1800s about the result of play with energy. When children gain too much energy, they will go to work until they burned off enough and the cycle repeats. Play has been related to the source of art. Darwin even equated play to evolution. Playgrounds and playground equipment among others offer a distinct way wherein kids learn fundamental human activities. They learn to climb, group together, and socialize. It is also a source of gratification for children allowing them to develop a healthy and happy disposition. These can encourage all sorts of cognitive abilities including the ability to create.
Children acquire knowledge through play, according to Jean Piaget. Once your kid masters one skill, he or she will move forward to learn another eventually, allowing the child to gain as many capabilities as possible. If you let your child play constantly then their learning process takes place consistently. There are several stages your child goes through developing creativity and other important skills: functional, construction, symbolic, socio-dramatic, and games with rules.
The impact of playgrounds to a child’s creativity emphasizes the importance of design. Children do not just develop creativity through playgrounds in a snap rather, it is a process. Exposing them to the right equipment is also crucial. Despite challenges to the development and access of appropriate play equipment and setting, providers have been stepping up to the challenge. PlayGroundEquipment.com highlights the role of a creative playground to themed play for children’s development. You might not be able to choose what facilities your church or school includes but understanding the effects of these tools can help you better guide your child’s growth.
A good playground combines sufficient amount of social and natural components. Children should also be exposed to different components, not just on the equipment. Likewise, exposure to other children is also necessary for better learning. Cooperation and language are best learnt through social contact. You can help build your child’s creativity and imagination by showing and guiding them to be in contact with the right components. Suggesting how they should do things can also be helpful but independence is a must for learning.
[Images via SheKnows via Pinterest, Noah’s Play via Pinterest, UltraPlay via Pinterest, The Sellers via Pinterest]
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