Play Development - What Is Play?

Play is what children want to do and what they choose to do when given the freedom, independence, time and space to determine their own behaviour. All children have a natural desire to play and will therefore play anywhere they are given the opportunity.

Children’s play can be happy or sad, loud or quiet, calm or chaotic, creative or destructive, sociable or isolated and imaginative or real. Sometimes play can be risky, other times it will be boisterous and a lot of the time it will just seem plain silly.

When playing children will be spontaneous and they may move rapidly from one type of play to another. Children’s play is unlike a lot of adult behaviour. It often lacks structure, the steps contained within it may seem illogical and random and it probably won’t have any obvious purpose or end goal.

Play is freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated. It is critical to each and every child’s physical and emotional well-being and is central to a healthy child’s life.

The Wrexham Play Policy 2009 includes our definition of children’s play and explains our understanding of its critical importance in the lives of children.

The Importance Of Play

Play is a child’s right and is the essence of childhood. Playing is what being a child is all about. Nearly all adults will have happy memories of playing as a child and those that do not will have been disadvantaged because of it. If we value our children and see them as equal citizens then we must uphold their right to play.

What does play do for children?

  • Play is critical to how children’s brains develop. By playing children continually engage different areas of the brain which helps make connections within the brain necessary for understanding and allows the brain to retain capacity for future learning.
  • When given the opportunity to play children are more likely to be physically active by running, jumping, dancing, climbing, digging, lifting, pushing or pulling. Playing helps children’s muscles to develop and can help to keep them fit and healthy.
  • Through play children experience a wide range of emotions including excitement, frustration, determination, achievement, disappointment, confidence and upset, and through practice, can learn how to manage these.
  • Play is children’s way of experimenting with and exploring the world around them and as a result every experience children have while playing is of benefit to them.
  • By playing with their peers and interacting with a wide range of different people children develop their social skills and can build strong friendships, which lead to positive feelings of happiness and belonging.
  • By taking risks and having adventurous play experiences children can challenge themselves, test the limitations of the environment around them, develop problem-solving skills and find creative approaches to new situations. Play influences a child’s ability to be adaptable and resilient, to cope with stressful events and therefore enables them to support their own well-being.
  • Play is children’s way of releasing stress and “letting off steam”. Through imaginary and fantasy play children can act out experiences they have had elsewhere in their lives and begin to understand how to address these.
  • Ultimately play is critical to the continued development and survival of the human species. It is how we, as humans, learn to interact with the world around us and how we find our place within it. Just like many other species of animal play is essential to the young of our species and, as a result, we should do everything we can to support them to do it.

To find out how play contributes to and supports the Welsh Assembly Government’s Seven Core Aims for children visit: www.playwales.org.uk/page.asp?id=783 (External Link).

Play Deprivation

"Play Deprivation is the name given to the notion that not playing may deprive children of experiences that are regarded as developmentally essential and result in those affected being both biologically and socially disabled." Play Wales, 2006.

Research has shown that children today have far less opportunities to play freely compared to previous generations and as a result are missing out on the wide range of benefits that come from having quality play experiences.

Some of the factors of our modern society that have impacted on children’s freedom to play include:

  • Huge increases in traffic on our roads
  • Less natural space suitable for play near to where children live
  • Increased fears about "stranger danger"
  • A reduction in the number of ‘close knit’ communities where adults support each other and look out for each others children.
  • Some people having less tolerance for children’s natural play behaviour
  • The "blame culture" and the fear of litigation
  • Increased demands on children’s free time

To find out how we are trying to change tackle play deprivation and improve the play experiences of children in Wrexham please read the Wrexham Play Strategy 2009 to 2013. Find out about supporting children's play.

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