Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/the-benefits-of-play-go-well-beyond-physical-fitness/5020168/
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy �" and Jill a dull girl. The old aphorism (modified for political correctness) expresses a long-recognized principle: play is critical to developing bright children. Sagacious wisdom finds much support from more than 80 years of research: play is crucial to the development of creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, anticipatory planning, and even complex brain structures.The benefits of play go well beyond physical fitness. Recent research demonstrates the positive effects interactive play and exercise have on many aspects of children’s well-being, including their cognitive abilities.
Richer play environments provide greater opportunities for children to bring more of themselves to play, engage in more problem solving, and be more creative. The more children can act upon, change, rearrange, and manipulate the environment to meet their own needs, the more wide-ranging their responses can be. This wide range of responses includes learning through play. Whether the learning is conceptual and at the intuitive level or directed and at the factual level depends a great deal on what children have to play with.
Play as Stimulus
Play as a stimulus-seeking activity is currently one of the leading theories on why children play. It supports the notion that curiosity ...