Play promotes significant mental capacities, while children:
Stretch their attention span,
Build vocabulary
Develop perseverance
Organize and plan ideas
Think

Play develops children’s social selves, as they:
Rehearse social skills
Learn about acceptable peer behavior
Listen to what others say
Speak up for their own ideas
Follow others’ ideas,
Persuade others to follow
See things from other perspectives
Cooperate, help, share and solve problems
Develop empathy for others

Play fosters language skills as children:
Negotiate roles
Interact in their respective roles.
Play brings balance to the child’s
emotional development, as he or she:
Expresses and explores emotions
Uses fantasy to re-create and modify experiences to their liking
Characteristics of Play
Play fully absorbs children’s interest. It
brings enjoyment and has no defined
beginning or end.
In play, children set rules that govern
roles and relationships, entry into play,
plot development, and acceptable
behaviors. The players develop and agree
upon the rules, which are implicitly understood.
During play, children practice problem
solving and negotiating.
Children focus on the process or
performance of the activity, not on a goal
or the results.
Research shows the links between play
and foundational capacities such as
memory, self-regulation, oral language
abilities, social skills, and success in
school.

National Association for the Education of Young Children Developmentally Appropriate Practice Guidelines, 2008

Characteristics of Play
Play fully absorbs children’s interest. It brings enjoyment and has no defined beginning or end. In play, children set rules that govern roles and relationships, entry into play, plot development, and acceptable behaviors. The players develop and agree upon the rules, which are implicitly understood.

During play, children practice problem solving and negotiating. Children focus on the process or performance of the activity, not on a goal or the results.

How Can We Help?
Adults can…
• Reinforce and extend the play to
sustain children’s interest
• Enter the play directly if invited
• Label feelings and reflect on
emotional content
• Ask open-ended questions
• Provide space and time
• Guide use of the environment
• Provide playmates
• Make materials available (e.g.,
blocks, sand, clay, paints, dolls,
dress-up clothes)

We help most of all simply by believing in the worth and in the importance of play.
Adapted from articles from the National Association for the Education of Young Children

“Play is so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child. This birthright is challenged by forces including child labor and exploitation practices, war and neighborhood violence, and the limited resources available to children living in poverty. However, even those children who are fortunate enough to have abundant available
resources and who live in relative peace may not be receiving the full benefits of play. Many of these children are being raised in an increasingly hurried and pressured style that may limit the protective benefits they would gain from child driven play. Because every child deserves the opportunity to develop to their unique potential, child advocates must consider all factors that interfere with optimal development and press for
circumstances that allow each child to fully reap the advantages associated with play.”
Kenneth R. Ginsburg
The American Academy of Pediatrics report, “The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development
and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds”

The Serious Business of Play
Play for the young child is serious business, and serves very important purposes in nourishing children’s
development, intellectually, socially, emotionally, and physically.