Encouraging Children to Play in Today's Society

Children need games and simple toys to grow well. How do you explain this?

Toys and games used as therapies in children

Playing is an action that children decide on doing. The child must be able to start and stop games or playing whenever he wants. It is a fundamental aspect of the game to be a able to stop and start again. The act of playing is a clinical therapy in itself.

When a child plays, he constantly tries to turn a scary situation that he has suffered to try overcome it and dominate. When a little girls feeds her doll or bear violently she inflicts on it her fears of passing the same situation herself. She than transforms it into a game where the doll can push away the plate at says "stop". This is the way the child would like things to be in reality.

What is the function of the game?

When a child plays a game with others for example, he must wait for his turn, sometimes moving back spaces. He carries out activities which represent a time for stopping and a desire to dominate. The game has an important role; that of desire and pleasure which are very important. The child learns to accept some frustration in him, to be able to wait and to defer.

Many children do not accept to be frustrated and are not ready to face an obstacle. Games allow children to accept their flaws which are lack, loss and abandonment and increase their energy to transform these into success.

A child who does not play will have difficulty in society facing the accidents that occur in life. He will be more fragile in finding solutions in situations of anxiety. It is common that violent adolescents use a knife when refused to be given a cigarette. Anyone who has played as a child will be more able to tackle this situation and to try to avoid confrontation.

He will have learned by playing with others to see the hidden similarities in his partners and their points of differences. So we can clearly say that playing is anti violence. Today, we must therefore let children play and help them learn how to play and we should not focus only on making them learn academic subjects. All games are educational and help children keep themselves organised and grow holistically as a human being.

Do children play enough?

Children nowadays live in a society that confuses their leisure and games. Leisure is more occupational and recreational. In a utilitarian society, the act of play is free, frivolous, unnecessary, and offers no immediate return but it is fundamental to the structuring of the human being. One of the major issues of the twenty-first century is to teach our children to play and give them the pleasure of playing.

Do video games have the same role as traditional games?

The retention of existing games, television and other consoles game make children highly depended and addicted to them. They are increasingly the objects that are portable and can be played all day, almost all the time enclosing the child alone in himself.

These games exist and we cannot entirely reject them. Some have the merit of helping the child to control his impulses of life and death but playing with these kinds of games can pose risks to their development. It is vital in today's society that children can alternate ways to play by leaving aside their console for a little time and playing more traditional games.

Sources:

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/play.html