How many of us know children (6months - 6years) who do not attend some or the other activity class? Hardly any, correct? Yes. Whether it is swimming, art or music, there is a class for every child! Enrolling our children in such programmes becomes a matter of pride and a necessary step towards school admissions as well. However, in all these socially driven activities, somewhere basic play is lost.
Play is an extremely important aspect of child development. When children play in a park or in a playground, that exploratory play helps them build their imagination, tolerance and resilience and remove the fear of the unknown. It exposes them to different surroundings and non-controlled environments, which gives them a chance to meet with a varied variety of children, and thereby, learn to understand and resolve issues amongst themselves. It helps them discover themselves and build upon their personality aspects such as confidence, self-esteem, trust, security, and safety, and develop their socialising and conflict-handling skills. In this manner, children are able to develop their personality from their own comfort and security.
Play with parents/ grandparents in the form of storytelling, building blocks, making puzzles, painting or making greeting cards or singing nursery rhymes can also be extremely productive. It serves as a means of inculcating the importance of family bonding in children, while at the same time, introducing and expanding their knowledge base. Utilise this time to read stories. Encourage them to create and share stories with you. Instead of telling them to use a colouring book to colour on their own, pick up the crayons and colour along with them. Activities done in an interactive manner help establish trust, love and safety. And who knows, in the process, you yourself will find this interactive play an extremely useful stress buster!
However, if your child is not able to talk to other children/ make friends/ has excessive mood swings/ struggles with anger or even academia, play/arts-based therapy will be extremely useful for them. In such kind of therapy, different play-based activities are carefully curated to help the child become comfortable, establish and build upon trust and safety. Since children communicate very well through play, these activities are carefully designed to help them work through their emotions and resolve issues in a safe environment. It is with this safe base that they will become empowered to take on the world!
