The Importance of Play
The Importance of Play!
More Play Research
The benefits of play for young children are endless!
The Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Benefits of Play
When children are happily at play there is a wonderful hum in the room. A deep sense of well being emanates from the children. This should be reason enough to foster and protect play, but research also points to a number of important gains linked to a child’s ability to engage in healthy, creative play. Sara Smilansky, an Israeli researcher, studied children at play in Israel and the United States. She defines dramatic play as taking place when a child pretends to be someone else and sociodramatic play as those times when two or more children cooperate in such role–playing. She summarizes her research as follows: “The results point to dramatic and sociodramatic play as a strong medium for the development of cognitive and socioemotional skills.”
Here is a summary of the gains Smilansky found directly linked to a child’s ability to engage in dramatic and sociodramatic play:
Gains in Cognitive-Creative Activities
Better verbalization
Richer vocabulary
Higher language comprehension
Higher language level
Better problem-solving strategies
More curiosity
Better ability to take on the perspective of another
Higher intellectual competence
Gains in Socioemotional Activities
More playing with peers
More group activity
Better peer cooperation
Reduced aggression
Better ability to take on the perspective of others
More empathy
Better control of impulsive actions
Better prediction of others’ preferences and desires
Better emotional and social adjustment
More innovation
More imaginativeness
Longer attention span
Greater attention ability
Performance of more conservation tasks
(Smilansky, p. 35)
Smilansky, Sara. “Sociodramatic play: Its relevance to behavior and achievement in school.” In E. Klugman & S. Smilansky (Eds.), Children’s Play and Learning. New York: Teacher’s College. 1990.