When you watch your children play, you’re not just seeing them have a good time. You’re witnessing a comprehensive process of development and growth. Play is the vehicle through which children, especially in early childhood, participate in meaningful experiences that enhance their cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development.
Intelligence is a concept that has also developed over time, and people will have different definitions and ideas about the topic, as there are many different theories on intelligence. According to Gardner’s theory, there are multiple types of intelligence, whereas Sternberg formulated the ‘triarchic theory of intelligence’, and then, of course, there’s Spearman’s G-factor.
In this article, we’ll unveil some of the ways play-based learning helps to nurture your child’s intelligence and how you can be a part of the process. Here are some of the ways play affects your children:
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Encourages creativity and imagination
Allowing your child some free time to play provides them with the opportunity to unleash all the ideas running around in their head. It unlocks their imagination and creativity.
Whether they’re playing make-believe, pretending to be astronauts and teachers, exploring imaginary worlds, or constructing elaborate structures, a child who is fueled by boundless creativity and then nurtured always to think creatively has the potential to grow up to be a problem-solver and a leader.
Why is this possible? Well, play allows your kids to explore ideas from different perspectives, and this allows them to generate ideas, and experiment with new concepts, and this fosters a rich cognitive environment for intellectual growth.
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Develops social and emotional intelligence
When kids are engaged in play-based learning, it’s generally with other kids, and this allows them to navigate a whole host of different social interactions. By playing with others, they’ll learn to take turns, negotiate and collaborate. Being exposed to kids with different temperaments allows them to develop empathy, understand others’ perspectives, and build lasting and meaningful relationships.
Never underestimate the effect that play has on a child’s emotions. Play serves as a brilliant emotional outlet. Through play, kids are able to regulate and express their emotions in a safe and supportive environment. You’ll see kids experience all the emotions when they’re playing. In turn, this will help them better understand social cues so they can develop healthy relationships.
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Improves language and communication skills
When kids are playing, they have an internal dialogue, which generally develops into them talking to themselves or others. As cute as it is to see and hear these conversations, they are really an incredible catalyst for helping kids develop their language and communication skills. Think about it: when they’re playing, they’re telling stories, talking to other kids, and doing pretend dialogues. This means they’re consistently building their vocabulary expression, improving their sentence structure and learning to listen too. All these interactions help foster their emotional and social intelligence.
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Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
We know that play can get kids to think outside the box, nurturing their problem-solving and critical-thinking abilities. Different activities expose kids to new challenges, requiring them to analyse and strategise to find innovative solutions. Whether they’re inventing new games or playing pretend, this type of play does a good job of optimising their problem-solving skills. Ultimately, it’s going to help hone their ability to approach challenges with a curious, resilient, and adaptable mindset.
While allowing kids to do free play is great for allowing them to encounter and overcome situations by themselves, giving them a few fun activities to do allows you to provide input without taking over. Get them some fun puzzles of things they enjoy.
What are the best activities to build your child’s intelligence through play?
Although kids have the ability to create fun out of almost nothing, if you’re looking for a few toys to help encourage more playtime, Baby Toddler Kids has reviewed a huge range of wonderful, age-appropriate toys that will be a wonderful addition to your kid’s collection.
Here are some activities that may help your child develop their intelligence the fun way:
- Build puzzles
- Play board games
- Build Lego
- Build with blocks
- Play pretend
- Play in the park
- Do music lessons
- Do arts and crafts
- Read books, magazines and comics
Final Thoughts
For kids, playtime is a serious thing. Never underestimate the power of play because it’s during these times that your child is developing who they will be in the future.
