Playing is the main activity of childhood and is characterized by being a voluntary, free and spontaneous act that is enjoyable for the child, since it allows the child to learn in a fun and casual way, since it favors not only motor and cognitive aspects, if not also linguistic and social.
Playful activities allow significant advances in cognitive and communicational development, favoring verbalization, vocabulary increase, language comprehension, concentration capacity, imagination and creativity, curiosity, impulse control, problem solving, empathy and cooperation, as well as group participation, among other things. For this reason, it is necessary to provide the right space for different playful environments: spontaneous and free play, adapting to the child's creativity and imagination; the game with their peers and the game mediated by the adult.
Research has shown that playing stimulates 25% more neuronal synapses in the child's brain, enriching both sides of the brain, the left and right hemispheres.
There are different types of games, according to the different stages of maturation:
The sensory-motor game, according to Piaget, from 0 to 2 years allows the little one to explore the world through his own body. It is a primordial stage in the development of language, called the pre-linguistic stage, here the child first uses crying and smiling to communicate his needs and his desires, then plays with his vocal apparatus issuing vocalizations, increasingly complex babbling and the first .
Later, approximately at the age of 2 and up to 7, a phase characterized by egocentrism and fantasy with which they see everything begins. Their mental structures are developing and they are already capable of associating images or objects with meanings other than the one they have. Here appears the famous symbolic game, or the "as if" game, where a small shoebox turns into a fantastic racing car or an old broomstick into a fast horse, the child is able to transform the objects into the that you want, through the symbol internalizes the outside world and adapts it to your needs, thus enhancing imagination, creativity and representation. The child uses the game to release his impulses, he is introduced to learning social behaviors, assuming roles and learning the necessary rules to regulate his behavior and know his emotions.
Between the ages of 4 and 6, a pre-social game appears, since he needs companions in his games. At this stage, roles emerge at playtime, and the representation and imitation of adult life also takes place, which entails an increase in vocabulary and verbal contact. The child then goes on to a regulated game, where an already mature language is evident. The games will be numerous and the language will be of great importance: discussions will arise and rules of the game and action plans will be established. How to stimulate language through play:
-Invite the child to use language to say what he feels and what he wants.
-Respond to words and not to gestures when he asks for something.
- Teach him through songs.
- Read long stories, exaggerating expressiveness and showing the drawings for visual support.
- Talk to the child whether to use infantile or diminutive forms.
-When playing with the child, avoid correcting his speech errors, rather, resort to language modeling techniques, repeating what the child issued, but appropriately, providing the correct model.
The referential format of the game fulfills two functions in the child's cognitive development: first, it conforms with language the semantic representation of the object whose knowledge the mother and child share. Second, the mother also teaches the child that there are ways to disambiguate the reference, to clarify its meaning: It has long ears (it's a rabbit). That is, the interaction not only serves to stimulate the development of language in its referential function, but also functions as a vehicle for cultural transmission based on the increase of knowledge.
It is important to provide the child with as many different experiences and activities as possible, but adapting them to her capacity and development. The game is the best tool to acquire a good physical and motor, cognitive, social and communicative development, as well as emotional-affective.
Through the game, we arouse curiosity and wonder in the little one, we are developing his cognitive capacity. By understanding how objects work and anticipating the consequences of their actions, we are stimulating the ability to learn, and the abilities that we awaken are concept formation, memorization, categorization, spatial location, we encourage attention to assimilate and understand the relationship cause effect. Everything that is learned through the game is assimilated faster and better.
María Dinorah Sánchez Granados, 2021
Clinical psychologist for children and adults
Comprehensive intervention for children with neurodevelopmental disorders
Speech therapist
Founder and CEO of CRESCERE
