Why play is essential for the development of children?

This school year's days are numbered.

The classes gradually become lighter and the time to play increases, especially in the early stages of education.

A fact that is also noticeable in homes.

Practically immersed in the summer holidays, boys and girls will enjoy more time to entertain themselves in the coming weeks.

An activity, the game, that experts claim as an essential factor in the development of people, especially during the childhood and youth stage.

Ignacio Guadix, head of Education at UNICEF Spain, maintains that "play requires time and space: substantial time on a daily basis and a safe space in which to develop."

If those conditions are limited by issues of poverty, violence or injustice, "this right will also be affected."

“Even though the game finds its way into the most hopeless situations.

It is strange to see two children together who, during a time of waiting, and after a few moments of trial and error, do not invite each other to imitate, challenge or share an experience.

Playing is one of the best learning methodologies at any age and also one of the best ways to face psychosocial recovery after a trauma, as we can see, for example, with those displaced by the conflict in Ukraine”,

More information

What happens in the brain of a child when he plays with his parents

Today it is common to observe how fathers and mothers act as hosts in the recreational activities carried out by their children together with other children.

In this way, they become protagonists of recreational activities on too many occasions.

The thinker Francesco Tonucci maintains that “playing freely means leaving home: playing in the street without adult supervision, meeting friends, spending time freely and living it with hope or disappointment.

Both feelings are part of the game.

For this reason, although the involvement of parents is beneficial for the development of their children, Guadix considers that "it is necessary to identify the moments in which adults should let children get bored, confront, spend time without getting OK, get organized...”

Because, according to the expert,

during the game "a micro-society is created that must deal with particular interests in order to achieve pure fun".

“The deepest values ​​or anti-values ​​in our relationship with the other come to light and we find ourselves in a situation of choice.

From this complex process of choice we learn experientially;

That is why playing has that power when it comes to marking our development”, he reflects.

Entertaining yourself, having fun alone and with others should be a way of learning for everyday life.

Along these lines, Susana Lominchar, director of El Cole de Celia y Pepe, a center specializing in children with language problems, gives her opinion: "If we think of any game, and we go beyond the playful aspect, we observe that it encompasses some rules that must be respected, routines, tactics... and, of course, an outcome that must be managed.

Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, and knowing how to manage frustrations and value the achievements of others will be the basis of a person of integrity, reasonableness and tolerance in the future”.

The game and the different stages of childhood

Marta Fernández García-Andrade, therapeutic director of the Querer Foundation's multidisciplinary cabinet and family and child and adolescent psychologist, maintains that all children should enjoy time to play every day.

“When the child participates or has fun with an activity, in addition to developing her creativity or social relationships, she is absorbing and reproducing learning acquired unconsciously.

A three-year-old child will pretend through symbolic play that he is talking on the phone with his mother, a six-year-old will make constructions that he has seen on the street, and a nine-year-old will follow or invent rules in a more regulated process, reproducing limits and hierarchies, just as It happens in adult life.

In addition, playing is a way of letting off steam and relaxation that allows for greater emotional adjustment”, says the psychologist.

In carrying out recreational activities, physical, cognitive and emotional aspects are involved that acquire different intensities during the practice, regardless of whether it is developed

or in a traditional way.

Regardless of the chosen task, the head of Education at UNICEF Spain says that adults must “be able to provide them with all kinds of experiences”.

"That they be able to climb a tree and then that they can build their virtual house with all the details and fantasy, because we are going to function in a physical environment and also in a virtual environment and we must be competent in both", he says.

In relation to whether the unstructured game or the one associated with some type of sport is the same, Marta Fernández García-Andrade adds that it is indistinct, since "while the first encourages creativity or emotional projection, with the second they acquire values ​​such as discipline or teamwork.

So both are beneficial or positive at any age."

The therapeutic power of the game during hospitalization

If the game plays an important role in the life of any child, during hospitalization processes it is essential.

Away from school, from their friends and, on occasions, from a large part of their relatives, the little ones and their parents have to use their imagination so that their stay does not become a routine.

In this hospital context, Mónica Esteban, founder and president of the Juegaterapia Foundation, believes that "the game has a wonderful and powerful therapeutic power". "We already verified it in the scientific study that we carried out together with the medical team of the La Paz Hospital in Madrid .

We show that playing helps reduce pain and thus discomfort during the long process of the disease and the hospital stay.

But, in addition, it also helps emotionally and psychologically,

This foundation is an expert in

games .

Its president comments that "the connection with other players makes the little hospitalized broaden their horizons". "They can play while they are connected to chemotherapy, at night when it is impossible for them to sleep, in the waiting room before they do any tests painful medical condition, talking to friends who are connected from their homes...", he lists. "All this gives them a necessary dose of normalcy in lives that have been suddenly interrupted by the disease.

it is

also socialized and the child can feel just as supported, challenged, defeated or successful as in any traditional game”.

In these hospital environments, the important thing is the game, how it is carried out is only the means to enjoy, entertain and "disconnect".

"Furthermore, each game or toy has its space and time in the hospital, taking into account the age of the children and their preferences

. part, even playing lying on a stretcher.

The digital stimuli are fast and have an immediate response that helps distract you during the most painful protocols more easily than other games, although they are all relevant”, says Mónica Esteban.

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