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When my son first started pre-school the teacher invited all of the new parents to an evening event with a child development expert. We would learn how best to help our children learn.
I was reluctant. Had we already ruined this poor innocent? Were my child’s chances for adult success permanently marred by unintentionally negligent parenting?
Deep down I knew it wasn’t true, but I didn't want to have to sit and listen to someone tell me my bright, terribly active toddler should be sitting still and doing flashcards or studying anything besides the construction equipment he found so fascinating.
Childhood, I thought, should be for playing.
Good news: It is. Experts agree that gross motor activity and sensory development leads to future academic and fine skill mastery. Forcing reading skills and other obviously school-related activities on children before they are ready is more likely to hinder the future acquisition of those very skills than anything else.
Active, developmental play includes lots of things, such as quiet story time, arts and crafts, and imaginative play. And the most beneficial play takes place when children are active participants in it. They are not staring at a screen or following an adult. They are engaged and using their imaginations, trying new things in new ways.
Four Ways to Keep Your Child Engaged
Change it up. Respect your child’s shorter attention span. Change activities regularly to help keep them focused. Combine plenty of active gross motor activity with quieter, fine motor ones. Whichever your child prefers, be sure to offer and encourage the other.
Use All Five Senses. Children need to stimulate and develop all of them. The most often forgotten one is touch, yet children are fascinated by textures. Let them play with sand, different fabrics, clay, and playdough--anything that stimulates that connection between their fingers and their brain.
Get Outside. Children move more--and in more different ways--when they’re out of the confines of the indoors. Running, skipping, jumping, and falling all teach them how to use their bodies, and they do more of all these activities outside than in. Go to the playground. Or, better, yet, ditch the car and walk--to the store, the library, a friend’s house--with your child but without the stroller. It may take awhile, but your child can explore their world and the two of you can talk about it along the way.
Play Music. When you have to be indoors and your child has run through his or her favorite toys and games, try putting on some music and get dancing, singing, anything. Songs--with beat and melody--are easier for children to remember than the spoken word and are great for language development. And dancing gets them moving and having fun (and us adults, too).
The Biggest Surprise
All that crazy, run-and-crash, hanging upside down, and insane spinning that children love so much (“Again! again!” mine shouts after being thrown onto a pile of cushions by his exuberant uncle) is actually good for their brain development. Such tremendous physical cause-and-effect and movement stimulates the growth of myelin around neurons, insulating them and allowing them to make more connections, which are the very pathways along which future learning can take place.
What are your child's favorite ways to play? Share them here.
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