How to raise an excellent child? Play freely in childhood!

People should re-understand play, not as the opposite of work, but as a complement to work. Curiosity, imagination and creativity are like muscles, they become useless if you don’t use them. Childhood Play Matters Psychiatrist Stuart Brown spent 42 years interviewing 6,000 people about their childhood lives. Data shows that if children are not allowed to play freely as children, they may become unhappy and have difficulty adapting to new environments when they grow up. What scientists call \”free play\” is crucial to developing children\’s social skills, ability to cope with stress, and cognitive problem-solving skills. Many studies support Brown\’s point: in both humans and animals, social, emotional and cognitive development will be affected if they don\’t play enough in childhood. Research on animal behavior confirms the benefits of play and its evolutionary importance: Basically, play allows animals (including humans) to learn skills that are beneficial to survival and reproduction. Most psychologists agree that even as adults, people continue to benefit from free play in early childhood, and that play can also contribute to the physical and mental health of adults. In the past, almost every child had enough time to play, but today, few children enjoy the joy of free play. In 2005, a report in \”Child and Adolescent Medical Literature\” showed that from 1981 to 1997, children\’s free play time was shortened by a quarter. In order for their children to go to a good university, parents sacrificed their children\’s play Time, many extracurricular activities are arranged for them – starting from kindergarten. However, it is free play that makes children more creative and coordinated. Playing with peers is more effective How do children benefit from these seemingly meaningless activities? Perhaps most importantly, free play with peers helps develop children\’s social skills. Pellegrini said: \”You can learn how to restrain your behavior from your teacher, but you cannot become a social strongman. Only in the process of interacting with peers will your social skills become stronger and stronger. \”Through interaction with peers, children will gradually know what is acceptable and what is unacceptable.\” They will understand that they can interact fairly with their peers and rotate roles – they cannot always be required to play positive roles such as fairies and queens. Only by playing a good role can you maintain a good relationship with your companions for a long time, otherwise you will lose your playmates quickly. Pellegrini explains, \”Children want to keep playing, so they are willing to step back to accommodate others\’ requests.\” Children are interested in these activities, and when they encounter setbacks, they don\’t react as if they were faced with a math problem. Give up easily – This helps develop their persistence and negotiation skills. Maintaining a good atmosphere also requires certain communication skills – perhaps the most important social skill. From this point of view, playing with peers is extremely important. Research shows that children use more complex language when playing with their peers than when playing with adults. Pellegrini thinks, in role-playing games, \”If children have to mention something that does not exist in front of them, then they have to use some complex language to express what they want to explain in a way that their partners can understand.\” When a child hands a fictitious cone-shaped object to a peer and asks, \”Vanilla or chocolate?\” the peer will have difficulty understanding what this means and must provide scene clues: \”Would you like vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream?\” Adults People are different, they can automatically fill in the missing information. If play can develop children\’s social skills, then not having enough play will hinder the improvement of social skills – this has been confirmed by relevant research. The High Vision Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA, conducted a study on poor children and children with poor academic performance. Scientists from the foundation pointed out in a published research report that compared to kindergartens where teachers are always there to teach and children cannot play freely, children trained in kindergartens where free play is the main content will be better able to learn in later life. Respond to society. Data show that among children who attended instructional kindergartens when they were 2 or 3 years old, more than a quarter were suspended from work when they grew up, while less than 7% of children who attended play-based kindergartens were suspended from work when they grew up. % of people have experienced being suspended from work. Play relieves stress Play eliminates anxiety, relieves stress, and helps children cope with unpredictable and difficult situations. Research shows play also plays a key role in children’s emotional well-being. This may be because play helps them cope with anxiety and stress. \”Child and Adolescent Medical Literature\” once published such a report: Researchers observed the performance of 74 three- and four-year-old children on their first day of kindergarten, such as whether they begged their parents to stay, how much sweat their palms produced, etc. to assess their level of anxiety. The researchers divided the children into anxious and non-anxious types and randomly divided them into four groups. Half of the children will enter a room full of toys, and they can play alone or with their peers for 15 minutes; the remaining children can only sit at a small table alone or with their peers and listen to the teacher telling stories for the same 15 minutes. The researchers then reassessed the children\’s anxiety levels. Children who were previously considered anxious were twice as anxious after playing with toys for 15 minutes as children who listened to stories (of course, non-anxious children were even less anxious). Interestingly, children who played alone reported calmer moods than those who played with peers. Researchers speculate that when children are alone, it is easy to create imaginative ways of playing, which can lead to more fantasy and help them cope with current difficulties. Play more with things and get smarter Playing helps develop children\’s creative thinking, making them smarter and better problem-solvers. The most obvious benefits of play seem to be relieving stress and building social skills, but research shows that play has a third, unexpected effect: it makes kids smarter. In a classic study published in the journal Developmental Psychology, researchers examined 90 adolescentsChildren in kindergarten are divided into three groups – 01 The children in the first group can choose 4 types of common items such as a stack of paper towels, a screwdriver, a wooden board, and a pile of paper clips to play freely; 02 For the children in the second group, The researchers asked them to imitate the staff and use these items according to daily methods; 03 The third group of children could not see these daily items. They sat at the table and randomly drew what they wanted to draw. After 10 minutes, the researchers asked the children to tell how to use one of the items. The results showed that the children who played freely reported unconventional and creative uses three times more than the other two groups of children, which shows that free play with materials can help cultivate creative thinking. In addition, playing and playing can also improve children\’s problem-solving abilities. Pellegrini once published an article saying that the more elementary school boys who fight, the better they perform on a test of solving social problems. During the test, the researchers showed the children some pictures, five of which were about \”a child trying to get a toy from a peer\” and the other five were about \”a child trying to avoid his mother\’s scolding.\” The researchers asked the children to name as many solutions as they could for each picture. The diversity of solutions they come up with determines their grade. The results showed that children who played regularly scored higher. Why does playing make children better? Mark Bekoff, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, believes that \”play is like a kaleidoscope\”, with randomness and creativity – play can improve children\’s flexibility and creativity, and when they encounter unexpected situations Or in a new environment, it will have a more competitive advantage. Child psychologists such as David Elkind, a child development expert at Tuft University in the United States, agree with this view. Elkind believes that play is a way for children to learn: \”Without play, children will miss many learning opportunities.\” Of course, many parents today believe that they are restricting their children\’s free play and allowing them to participate in various \”valuable\” learning activities in order to maximize their children\’s interests. Sergio M. Perlis, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, believes that some parents may also hesitate to let their children play on their own. They may worry that children may get hurt during rough and tumble play. Perlis believes that it is normal for parents to have such instincts, but protecting their children \”comes at a cost.\” When these children grow up, they are likely to have difficulty coping with the unexpected complexity of the world. If a child has played freely and freely, he is more likely to be able to cope with unpredictable social environments when he grows up. \”Parents should let their children truly be children – not only because they want them to enjoy the joy of childhood, but also because they do not satisfy their children The desire to play freely may stifle their curiosity and creativity.