Do you take your child to the park or playground? Do you understand the benefits of playgrounds. I’ve often wondered if they have become obsolete and replaced by video games. I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve taken the children to park and there has been other children there. I wondered if parents understood the importance of a playground and its benefit to our children.
When children are on the playground, they are encouraged to engage in free play. Free play is simply children playing, running, climbing and using their imagination. We may not think of early childhood development while they are on the playground. But, developing our children must be considered in just about everything that we do as parents. Although we have a swing set in the backyard, we still my grandson to the park for exercise and interaction with other children.
There are multiple benefits to children playing on slides, monkey bars, climbing and jumping. Here are a few:
- Physical benefit – All children need to exercise for good health and to fight obesity.
- Helps develop children emotionally – Children can learn to understand and control their emotions on the playground. They may fall and cry, they may find something funny or get angry. This is a perfect opportunity to teach them about being happy, sad or whatever they’re feeling.
- Helps develop social skills – Children must learn to socialize to be successful as an adult. Playing on a playground allows children to join in with others, share, and learn how to be a good sport. They may be teased, have another child cut in front of them etc., but it’s a perfect opportunity to teach them how to resolve problems they may encounter.
- Helps develop large motor skills – Children develop and strengthen motor skills from birth to 6 years. This includes rolling over, walking, learning to hold a pencil or crayons, using scissors, these are fine motor skills. Large motor skills are developed by using muscles in the arms, legs etc. Climbing, jumping, using the monkey bars etc. will help with these skills. It will also assist children with learning to keep their balance and playing in organized sports.
- Helps develop cognitive skills – Children need to develop their brain so they will learn how to remember, solve problems, work on perception and it assists them with their attention span.
Research by The Shasta Children and Families First Commission (SCFFC) has shown that brain development is crucial in a child’s earliest years. It’s imperative that children develop interaction through free play in the first six years of their life, and playgrounds are an appropriate area to develop these skills. Research also reveals that children who have poorly developed motor-skills by age five will most likely never have efficient motor-skills.
The paternal grandparents purchased a play ground set similar to the one at the park for the backyard when time isn’t on our side. Xavier is getting older now, so he’s more into organized activities like football, basketball and swimming. Children become advanced because we focused on their developmental skills. Utilizing the playground to develop skills is not a new concept. My daughter was and still is a social butterfly. She participated in organized activities and excelled in higher academics.
Early childhood development is essential for all children. It is imperative that you work on your child’s developmental needs. The physical, emotional, cognitive, motor and social skills in your child’s early years will affect everything they do later in their life. The benefits of playgrounds are essential.
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are the proper tools for the job.
