Child growth and development

Once limited to major world cities, today’s interest in playgrounds has no precedent. As a product of the Industrial Revolution, the playground and relaxation movement of the early 1900s was largely urban based, but the current movement is nationwide and includes urban and rural areas, public parks, squares, public and private schools, child development centers, backyards, and fast food restaurants. Increased interest has also expanded opportunities in indoor pay-for-play centers, theme parks, zoos, and children’s museums. The development of national safety guidelines and standards (American Society for Testing and Materials,

Artificial Grass, 1993, 1995; Consumer Product Safety Commission, 1981, 1991, 1994), began during the mid-1970s; the standards are now influencing–indeed directing–thought and action in playground planning, development and use.

Although attention to playground safety is long overdue, the uninformed and overzealous application of safety standards may be as harmful as inattention to safety. Too often developmentally inappropriate playgrounds, paranoia about children’s safety, injury litigation, and physical destruction of playgrounds can be the result. The very welcome interest in playground safety can be tempered and illuminated with a focus on the child.

The importance of play in childhood development is widely misunderstood among the general population. Most adults view play as frivolous and unimportant. Fortunately for children, a growing number of sponsors are developing state-of-the-art play environments that challenge creativity while remaining relatively safe. We can plan innovative, developmentally appropriate playgrounds by examining the importance of play in child development, the influences of cultural change on children’s play and child development and age influences.

Importance of Play in Child Development

Perhaps the most pressing need in planning play environments is understanding the nature of play and its importance in children’s cognitive, social, language, and motor development. There is a rapidly growing body of evidence that play is central–indeed critical–to childhood development. Biologists and psychologists agree that play influences development; here is what they have to say. Research on play by biologists, psychiatrists, primatologists, psychologists, psychobiologists, evolutionary biologists, educators, and anthropologists, conclude that play isn’t just fun. Young mammals can’t do without it (Brownlee, 1997). For a variety of species, including humans, play is “nearly as important as food and sleep.” Through play, particularly make-believe or imaginative play, children gain emotional and mental mastery, and lay the groundwork for creative thinking. Play is serious business.

Play promotes cognitive development (Bruner, Jolly and Sylva, 1976; Smith, 1982). Play leads to discovery, reasoning, manipulative skills, divergent production and improves problem solving (Dansky, 1980; Sylva, 1977). All sorts of learning, about information, about people (including self), and about customs, are embedded in play (Yeatman and Reifel, 1992). Biologists who study play conclude that “play is a vital activity that helps the brains of young animals develop,” and through play “children practice many of the skills they will need as adults.” Further, “the intense sensory and physical stimulation that comes with playing is critical to the growth of …cerebellar synapses..(Angier, 1992).” This is supported by brain scans of Romanian orphans which show that deprivation of play and human interaction result in biological regression of brain development (ABC-TV January 16, 1997). The experiences of childhood, especially play, help form the brain’s circuits. If neurons are not used they may die (Begley, 1996).

“Zap: neurons in the brain’s amygdala send pulses of electricity through the circuits that control emotion. You hold him (infant) on your lap and talk…and neurons from his ears start hardwiring connections to the auditory cortex. And you thought you were just playing with your kid (Begley, 1996).”

Play promotes social development (Shure, 1981; Ladd and Mize, 1983) and motor development (Gabbard, 1979; Myers, 1985). Play provides opportunities to learn social roles and rules as well as a socially shared system of symbols, including language (Vygotsky, 1962, 1978; Yeatman and Reifel, 1992). Not only is play associated with the development of specific motor skills but biologists conclude that “the vigorous movements of play help in the maturation of muscle tissue …(Angier, 1992).”

Play promotes physical fitness and health. Sedentary lifestyles and junk food–coupled with reduction of physical education, play and work–are resulting in a nation of flabby, short-winded kids with elevated cholesterol and blood pressure levels and declining strength and heart-lung endurance (Deitz and Gortmaker, 1985; Winston, 1984; Ross and Gilbert, 1985; Javernick, 1988; Dennis: et al., 1988).

Play is therapeutic. The therapeutic benefits of play are pronounced during play, especially make believe or symbolic play. The young child’s play is equivalent to the adult’s language in expressing self and resolving conflicts (Axline, 1962; Landreth, 1995). A growing body of research, reviewed by Landreth (1995) concludes that playing helps children to resolve conflicts resulting from child abuse, family disruptions and other trauma.

Posted on September 9th, 2008 by A child
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When I was a child the school summer holidays seemed to fly by. However for my parents I’m sure it seemed like an eternity.

My friends and I occupied the days by going fishing, riding our cycles and generally enjoying being outside with the sun on our backs, british weather permitting of course !

Not for us watching TV and laying around the house. No doubt, our parents wanted to know where we were going and what we were doing but they didn’t have too worry too much.

It was a fairly innocent age before 24/7 news and the start of advertising aggressively to children.

Two things have happened that have changed the way children occupy their free time and neither can be attributed to them.

Firstly, parents are rightly or wrongly more worried about letting their children out of their sight. This is due to the stories on the news of children being harmed or abducted by strangers. This unfortunately has always happened and statistics show that cases of this nature have not increased. What has changed is that it is reported alot more on the News channels that were not around when I was young.

Secondly is the advent of Wii’s, XBox 360 and the like that by consequence have meant our kids exercise less. Advertisers actively target the childrens market as they know that for the child the gadget is a must have and for the parent it gives the peace of mind of knowing that their child is closeby and occupied, albeit not physically active.

The consequence of this is that we have a nation of inactive children that are bored unless they have a computer game in their hand and parents that would like their kids to be more active but are too worried to let them out of their sight to be active and burn up energy.

So what to do with the school summer holidays just around the corner?

What if you could get your child outside in the fresh air whilst being active and more importantly sale?

What about a garden trampoline ? It ticks all the boxes.

Your child will be outside in the fresh air.

Your child will active, occupied & energetic.

You will know where your child is and they will be safe.

Ok, I’m not going to say that a trampoline will keep them active and occupied all day but it will go a long way to relieving their boredom and your stress levels !

You don’t need a massive garden or lots of money as they come in all sizes and budgets. All have safety nets and can even be left out in all weathers so no need to store in the overflowing shed.

My kids love their trampoline and I love the peace and quiet I get from them bouncing up and down on it.
There are hundreds of trampolines on the market. At giftsinspired.com we have brought together the major suppliers on one site to allow you to easily chose the right trampoline for your garden and budget.

Keep your sanity and your kids active this summer!

Posted on June 16th, 2008 by A child
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Children all around the world like to play. Most of us believe that it is important for children to play and provide them vast variety of toys. Psychologists study children’s play and try to understand the purpose of the play. They classify children’s play in different ways. Pretend play is usually referred to children playing different social roles and social situations. For example, cooking, cleaning, ironing, going to the restaurant. It was noted that children as young as 12-15 month can be involved in a pretend play. Psychological research has found that younger children are able to pretend better with real or similar to real objects. Toy cookers, caps, plates, kettles are easy to find in almost any toy shop. Some of the toy shops even use classification of toys that was defined by psychologists. For example, Amazon uses classification of their toy products as pretend play and make-believe play. But how children’s play help children to develop?

Most psychologists agree that children’s play is important for their development but other social experiences are similar important for them. When children play social roles like pretending being a doctor, a firefighter or a builder they develop understanding of social roles in the society. Children’s play is important for developing social competence. Social competence might include understanding of the characteristics of the social partner, such as their age and gender, the ability to adjust their own behavior to different social situations, controlling their own behavior and emotions. Research has shown that children who involve in sociodramatic play are indeed appear to have higher level of social competence. However, it is difficult to say the exact amount of pretend play needed to develop social skills.

By playing different social roles children develop the kind of behavior and language that is used in a particular society. For example, when pretending the situation going to the restaurant children practice conversations that are usually used in the society: “I’d like to order fish and chips, please.” “Can I have a bill please?”. Children acquire understanding of shared meanings of the society and learn kinds of dialogues used in the society. However, if we consider dialogues that are used in fantasy play we can expect it to vary from one occasion to another.

Children’s play that is classified by psychologist to be a fantasy play seems to play slightly different role in child’s development. It is a play when children pretend to be a pirates, spiderman, monsters and so on. Some characters do not exist in the real life. Psychologists believe that fantasy play may play role in the development of imagination.

There are several factors that can affect children’s play:
• Parents can encourage play in their young children. Parents can show children an example of how to pretend. Several studies have shown that if parents model the pretend play children would engage in it more often.
• Schools can encourage pretend play by providing appropriate toys to children, such as dressing-up clothes, hospital props. They can also encourage by taking children to visit a farm or a factory.
• Some studies reported that social class affects children play and children from lower social class usually engage less in pretend play then children from higher social class. Such studies were highly criticized by other psychologists.
• There were noted sex differences in children’s play. Some of them might be due to social influences. However, boys do prefer rough-and-tumble play more then girls.
• It is also believed that boys prefer

Posted on May 5th, 2008 by A child
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