Why Play is Crucial for Social & Emotional Development?
Playing can help children develop social skills with peers and adults around them. Social skills like listening, paying attention, and sharing help children explore their feelings, develop self-discipline, express themselves and work out the emotional aspects of life.
In addition, this type of play helps children develop problem solving skills, make decisions and collaborate to work as a team. Imaginative pretend play develops in children as they grow older into toddlerhood and beyond, and the social components attached to it become more visible. Pretend play includes two different playing methods; one is a dramatic play that involves imitation and is carried out alone, whereas the other is socio-dramatic play, which involves verbal communication and interaction between two or more children. Here socio-dramatic play helps children be empathetic by learning how to put others' feelings and considerations first. Children experiment different characters like that of a father, mother, nurse, firefighter or a nurse through these play approaches and carry out responsibilities accordingly which helps to maintain a balance in the group.
Play helps children define social rules. According to Piaget, playing games in the early elementary years is crucial to the child's social and moral development. Piaget believed that children in the concrete operational stage, between 7 to 11 years, are involved in playing games with rules. By playing such games, children learn how to follow the rules, why is it necessary to follow the rules, the concept of fairness and cheating emerges, and thus the child becomes more aware of personal moral behaviour, and a sense of social acceptance develops.
Emotional Play
Play also plays a vital role in children's emotional development by allowing them to freely express themselves. Through play, children have always been able to express themselves, whether they are happy or sad, surprised or irritated, or high or low in emotion. You've probably noticed that kids everywhere express their emotions in a variety of ways, whether they're eating, playing, watching TV, or simply wanting to let someone know what they think of something. Additionally, play is essential for releasing the emotional strain that society places on kids, who are expected to act in particular ways. In addition, play gives children the chance to take control of their surroundings, allowing them to establish their own guidelines and exercise their freedom of choice and judgement.
Play offers children a safe space to work through their emotions and learn to regulate them. It also relieves the pressure put on children by societal expectations of how they should behave. Through play, children can assert their power of choice and decision-making, master their environment, and create their own rules. This sense of control over their surroundings can help children feel more confident and capable, leading to greater emotional stability and resilience.