The Power of Creative Play 12 • September 2016 / www.volusiaparent.com (“Today we bought apples, yesterday, carrots”) lays the foundation for children to contemplate more than one solution to a problem. And engaging in dialogue created for play characters is a certain vocabulary builder. • Social Development When children enter into pretend play with another child there are opportunities for growth in social skills such as taking turns or agreeing on rules. But even when a child pretends alone there are social benefits as a child directs the play of several characters, manages problems as they arise and functions as “king or queen” of the created realm. • Emotional Development In pretend play children have the opportunity to address situations which are causing stress or fear. Perhaps your child is afraid of an upcoming visit to the doctor. Pretend playing Doctor’s Office is a wonderful way to de-stress and face those fears in a safe environment—his or her own play area. As your family life unfolds week by week, be pro-active in scheduling both structured and unstructured play times. While structured activities such as music lessons or team sports have their place in a well-balanced life, our challenge today is to identify quiet spaces and protect them. There’s power in your child’s unstructured, unplugged, creative play. For Further Study: Elkind, D., The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon, 3rd ed. Cambridge, MA, 2001. Piaget, J., Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood, Norton, New York, l962. Articles: Erickson, RJ. Play Contributes to the full emotional development of the child, Education, l985. V. 105, pp 261-263. Ginsburg, Kenneth R. MD, MSED, The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent- Child Bonds, AMA, 2006. Johnson/Pierce, Problem-Solving with Young Children Using Persona Dolls, Young Children, Nov. 2010. Vygotsky, L. Play and Its Role in the Mental Development of the Child, Social Psychology, V. 12 pp 62-76, 1967. Author Bios: Cheryl Johnson, MEd, is the Director of the Child Development Program of Washington State University, Vancouver, WA. Jan Pierce, MEd, is a retired teacher and freelance writer specializing in education and family life articles. She is the author of Homegrown Readers, available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Find Jan at www.janpierce.net by Cheryl Johnson and Jan Pierce It’s no secret that today’s fast-paced lifestyle leaves many of us feeling as if we’re running on a never-ending treadmill. We’re pressured to over-schedule, overdo and overspend. It takes a conscious effort to simplify and allow time for quiet and reflection in our adult lives. No wonder our children mirror our overly-busy lives, often to their emotional detriment. Their days may be too full of scheduled activities to allow time for healthy, unstructured play, and play is the childhood equivalent of work. It needs to happen. The Benefits Child development experts such as Piaget and Vygotsky believe that creative play is key to a child’s social, emotional and cognitive development. Children learn by experience and pretend play provides a safe environment to test various scenarios found in real life. • Cognitive Development Pretend play scenarios promote foundational understandings for future language and mathematical success. For example, the simple process of acting out “going to the store” with several different outcomes, feature Plugged or Unplugged There’s good news. When given a quiet “unplugged” environment, children will enter into creative play. They’ll use the props around them---household items, open-ended toys, art supplies and they’ll pretend something. Children, like adults, need space in which to create. They need permission to move from an “entertain me” attitude to a “let’s see what I can do on my own” attitude. While screen activities can be healthy and educational, it’s a wise mom who’s proactive in providing her children regular quiet times for creative play.
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