The Importance of Play

I was thinking today of the importance of hands on play in young children, and the academic benefits it represents later in life. There has been a noticeable trend in recent years of children lacking fine motor skills in pre-school and kindergarten classes. These motor skills are necessary in building a foundation for writing and penmanship as well as perseverance and problem solving.

In the not so recent past, children would spend hours playing with toys and dolls each day. These toys were often small and had many points of alignment and articulation that required the student to use cross body motor skills in order to solve a specific problem. It seems overly simple but the very act of dressing a Barbie doll is a significant cognitive challenge for a four year child. As you consider the process, it requires the child to use both hands which stimulates both sides of the brain and literally builds synapses (pathways) between the hemispheres. Reasoning skills are brought into play as they evaluate the alignment, positioning and orientation of the clothing to the body. This is the same reasoning the student uses to evaluate alignment, positioning and orientation of a pencil to a piece of paper. If you have ever dressed a Barbie you also will realize that the clothing at times gets hung up on the fingers of the doll or requires the child to re-articulate the doll in order to slide the clothing into place. This challenges the child to focus on a problem and persevere through the completion of the project. Finally, when the dressing is complete there is a satisfaction of a job well done and the immediate reward of being able to play with a fully dressed doll.

This is just one example of the academic and cognitive value of hands on play. These benefits cannot be accomplished in front of a TV or computer screen. It is the collective wisdom of generations and should be embraced by all parents.