Why is play a gateway to understanding?
As children play, so they come to better understand the world and themselves. This doesn’t happen instantly, but there is a cumulative effect over time. Play is a gateway to understanding in a number of different ways.
Children can either play on their own or with other people. When playing with other people, one of the key things children are developing is their understanding of how social interactions work and what other people are like. One example of this is turn-taking, something all young children have to learn.
A child who plays with others and refuses to take turns is likely to experience the negative consequences of their behaviour. Some children might decide not to play with them in the future. Others might start to argue or try to force their own turn. These consequences are new experiences for the child who refused to take turns. Learning comes when they remember these experiences and act differently in the future. Or, perhaps, act the same way in the future but anticipate and are happy to accept the consequences of their behaviour.
Playing frequently involves social interaction and it therefore frequently involves children learning about and developing their understanding of how social interactions work. As children grow older, they become more skilled and more adept at social interaction. This is often reflected in the increased complexity of the games they play, and the increasing amount which is left unsaid and therefore inferred. It is left unsaid because children have come to understand it and no longer need to engage with it on an overt level.
Another way play is a gateway to understanding concerns language. Play gives children lots of opportunities to practice their language use, as well as to be exposed to the language use of others. For example, when children play together they consistently talk to each other about the play in which they are involved. This means they are both practising using language to describe and communicate their experiences and listening to other children (peers or siblings) do the same thing. In families, it is often the case that an older child plays with a younger sibling. Part of this play then involves the older child acting as a language role model. The younger child is exposed to their older sibling’s more advanced language use and this helps them to develop their own speaking and listening.
A third and final way play is a gateway to understanding concerns the conceptual knowledge children develop. This means children’s understanding of concepts and ideas; the abstract element of learning that populates so much of our thinking and helps us to make sense of the world.
For example, we might find a group of children playing goodies and baddies. What does this mean for their conceptual development? Well, good and bad are both concepts. Concepts that play a huge role in children’s lives and which continue to hold significant sway in adult minds as well. Playing goodies and baddies is fun. It involves lots of social interaction and lots of language use. But it also involves the manipulation and application of the children’s conceptual understanding of good and bad.
As they play the game, they use the concepts of good and bad to drive what happens. What do the baddies try to do? Bad things. What do the goodies try to do? Good things – including preventing the baddies from succeeding in their villainous schemes.
Throughout much childhood play, concepts are employed and deployed by children, either directly through verbalisation or indirectly through their influence on how the play is shaped, or on what games are being played. Even in a game of football, we see concepts coming to the fore. Someone commits a foul but claims they didn’t. An argument ensues. On what does the argument focus? Fairness, interpretation of the meaning of a foul, justice, consequences, appropriate behaviour. All of this is underpinned by concepts and conceptual understanding.
One way to look at play, then, is to see it as a gateway to understanding. Whenever your children are playing – whether that is with you, on their own or with other children – they are learning about the world and there is the potential for their understanding to develop.
Join Mike is his new course for parents, Help Your Child to Learn with Mike Gershon, and unlock the secrets of learning for your child. Find out how you can best support your child, helping them to learn, grow and develop. Mike gives you all the insights, knowledge and practical strategies you need to supercharge your child’s learning. Packed with over sixty practical strategies, the course gives busy parents bite-sized ideas they can quickly and easily use at home. Try the first section for free today, with no obligation, and find out what you can do to help your child to learn. Mike is a trainer, consultant and former teacher. He’s the author of over 40 books on teaching and learning, including numerous bestsellers. In the course, he calls on his vast knowledge and experience to give parents the tools they need to best support their child.
