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At Parks For Play we believe that play is central to children’s physical, mental, social, and emotional health and wellbeing and that these things come about when play is supported as a process involving challenge, exploration, making ‘mistakes’, testing things out and being creative.
Through the processes of play, children will interact with others, develop, break and re-develop friendships, navigate conflict and grow in respect and understanding of human diversity. Parks for Play understands and values ‘social’ as something expressed in a myriad of ways (for example, not always one person to another or including speech or direct contact). Children’s unique expressions are always celebrated at Parks for Play.
Playing enables an encountering with less tangible things – moments of wonder, dreaming, imagination, surprise, curiosity and questioning. These experiences push children’s drive to find out more about the world and their place in it. They are ‘wow’ moments, exciting, absorbing, full of sensation, speculation and hope. Play enables children to test out and gain an understanding of concepts like justice, democracy and power.
Playing allows children to work through strong emotions and to develop a repertoire of responses and problem-solving skills, supporting them in areas such as emotional regulation and improving their ability to cope with anxiety and stress.
When children play in self-directed ways, ‘deep learning’ comes about because children are engaging with multiple aspects of their being; cognitive, but also sensory, emotional awareness, movement and balance and body-awareness that in turn prompt lasting memories. Playing develops the structures of the brain and builds skills such as creativity and problem-solving.
Active play contributes to children’s health, their development of fine and gross motor skills and their confidence in their abilities. We know that being active can be particularly important when children have had a hard day of masking.
Playing supports a sense of belonging that occurs when children are genuinely valued in all their unique and diverse expressivities.