Playing and Reality
Two features of play really stand out for me. First, there is the possibility of casting aside the limits of reality and exploring what might be possible. Second, there is the relative lack of consequences compared to the real world. Both these features are important when it comes to children playing and both can help us to understand why play is important and how it helps children to learn.
Casting aside the limits of reality
You cannot be a superhero in the real world. You cannot soar off into the sky, fly halfway around the world at the speed of sound and rescue a bus full of schoolchildren teetering on the edge of a cliff.
You cannot build a castle in your back garden in the real world. You cannot take a cardboard box, a pair of wellington boots and a mixing bowl and turn these into a fully-fledged medieval-style castle in which to live for an afternoon.
You cannot be Cristiano Ronaldo in real life. You cannot transfer yourself into Cristiano Ronaldo’s body and play football like he does, scoring the goals he does and producing the kind of magic on a football pitch that he does on a regular basis.
But you can do all of these things through play. You can pretend to be a superhero. You can pretend to build a castle. And you can pretend to be Cristiano Ronaldo.
When children play, they cast aside the limits of reality and let their imaginations guide them. This leads to them thinking and acting in ways that are not a true reflection of the world as it is. Instead, they are a reflection of what the child imagines the world could be like. They are a reflection of the internal landscape of their minds, given light and colour and shape by the depth and range of their imagination.
When children play, they take flight into a world that exists separate to reality. It is this that gives play its endless opportunities for exploration. It is this too, I would argue, that makes play a productive and creative thing for children to do. The production comes from the fact that children generate their own mini-worlds when they play and the creativity comes from the extent to which these are brought into being by the thinking, imagination and actions of the children who are playing.
When your child is playing – when you are playing with your child – the boundaries of reality are put to one side, and exploration begins to take place. Sometimes this exploration is highly structured. Sometimes it is fantastical. Sometimes it is fairly mundane. But all of it is a precursor to eventually engaging with reality in full, just as we do as adults.
A relative lack of consequences
The second aspect of play that really stands out for me is the relative lack of consequences. There are consequences, for sure, but these don’t tend to match up to the consequences we meet in real life. For example, in a game of goodies and baddies the baddies might shoot the goodies using their fingers as make believe guns. The consequence of this? Maybe the goodies will fall over and pretend they have been hit. Maybe they will carry on regardless.
Another example is a child throwing a tea party for all their cuddly toys. They pour imaginary tea into each cup in turn. There are twenty cups, one for each of the twenty teddies who have been invited to the tea party. The consequences of this? There are none. The tea is imaginary and so it never runs out. Whereas, in reality, a twenty person tea party would require a fair few teapots being filled, or use of a giant urn.
In both these examples we see that the children playing are doing so within the bounds of their own imaginations. This means they make the rules and, therefore, they also control the consequences. The relative lack of consequences found within the games children play means there is much greater scope for exploration, creativity and imagination. Without consequences, there is greater freedom. And freedom is at the heart of play.
Of course, consequences do arrive on occasion. Often, these are wrapped up in interactions. For example, two children might be playing together, one pushes things a bit far, there’s an argument and tears follow. The parents have to step in and sort things out. But notice what’s happened here. The consequences have arisen from the intrusion of reality – driven by one child’s response to the other child’s behaviour. The imaginative world of play has been suspended because what was happening caused the illusion to break.
The relative lack of consequences inherent to play means children are free to push the boundaries of their imagination and take their play in a direction that engages them. If things go too far, reality bites and a limit is discovered.
We see the same lack of consequences demonstrating its importance in artistic endeavour and scientific discover. Playing around with ideas means temporarily detaching oneself from reality and asking ‘What if…?’ By entering the world of imagination, and no longer being bound by the consequences of reality, an artist can explore modes of expression that are different to what has gone before. Similarly, a scientist can ask questions of the universe that haven’t yet been asked. The golden thread underpinning this runs all the way back to those early experiences of play every child has. And it further demonstrates why play is such an important part of learning for all children.
Mike Gershon is a former teacher who now works as a trainer, consultant and author. He has written over 40 books on teaching and learning, including numerous bestsellers. His teaching resources have been viewed and downloaded more than 4 million times in over 180 countries and territories. He has worked with hundreds of schools and colleges in the UK and overseas, helping them to raise achievement and improve teaching and learning. Mike has distilled all his experience and expertise into his new course for parents, Help Your Child to Learn with Mike Gershon. Through a combination of full HD, TV-standard video, beautifully produced practical guides and additional bonus content, Mike gives parents everything they need to help their child to learn. Take a look today and experience the first section for free, with no obligation.
