As the world of education continues to change in the time of COVID-19, many parents are considering how to best support their child’s development during such uncertainty. With anxiety and stress on the rise, making play-based learning a priority in your child’s routine is more important now than ever before in ensuring your child is happy, healthy, and developing on schedule.
The Benefits of Play Based Learning
Emotional Intelligence: Building positive relationships with one another and managing one’s emotions are key to working well with others. Play based learning prepares children for social interactions, as they learn to communicate through sharing and resolving conflicts.
Conflict R esolution Skills: Play provides child with the chance to resolve conflicts through role playing. Pro m oting conversation skills and the ability to empathize, play builds the social and emotional skills necessary to handle disagreements and provides a space in which disputes can be worked through rather than dismissed.
Increased Engagement : When child ren have autonomy over what materials they choose to engage with, and what play scenarios they enact, children are more attentive and interested in learni ng.
Independent Learning: Unstructured play free from adult interference is essential to building your child’s sense of independence and self. Through independent play, a child is free to make choices over which materials they engage with and what concepts they want to know more about.
Creativity and Imagination : Open – ended play provides children with the chance to consider possibilities outside of reality. Whether it is make – believe animals, spectacular inventions, or wild adventures, imaginative thinking builds creativity and innovation.
Self- Awareness: Play allows children to conceptualize their place in the world. How they relate to other children, spaces, roles, and settings become apparent when a child rehearses the human interactions they see in the world.
Purposeful Play
At P retend City, we build better brains through our purposeful play-based experiences. Each of our child size city exhibits is specifically designed to support your child’s development through open ended play. Looking for ways to bring purposeful play to your home? Check out our Pretend City Play @ Home Guide for fun ways to engage your child’s mind this week.
Looking for more information on play-based learning and play based preschools? Visit the National Association for the Education of Young Children .
