Play

Play is expressing ourselves freely without any limitations or conditions. It is a recreational activity that involves overall development ie cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being of humans. Play is spontaneous and recreates energy. Play is a device for helping the child to prepare him for the serious business of life. It is a time for learning and of preparation, and among human beings the play period is very long because they have to learn a great deal before reaching maturity.

Play is right of every child, it allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination and it is important to healthy brain development. In the early age, children engage and interact in the world around them., thus allowing them to conquer their fears while practicing adult roles.

There are two kinds of play activities:

1. Active play: here the enjoyment comes from what the individual does, whether it is running just for the fun of running or constructing something with plastics or clay.
2. Passive play: in passive play the enjoyment is derived from the activities of others. Common examples are looking at pictures, listening to music or radio, watching TV and going to movies, etc.

Active play involves directed and undirected play. Undirected play is child driven and it allows children to practice decision-making skills, learn at their own pace and discover their own areas of interest and ultimately engage fully in the passions they want to pursue. Thus undirected play , plays key role in emotional, social and psychological development of the child. In directed play, child has to adhere to rules given by adults or peers, thus it will be directive and will not help in development of creativity, leadership and group skills.

Thus play especially active undirected play has many benefits in overall development of human being. And when parents also join child in play activity, the interactions between them will reveal the child's interests, capabilities and give a chance for parents to know about their child much better and the child will also be satisfied as parents pay full undivided attention to them.

Unfortunately, in present competitive world, is not able to give chance for a child to play unidirectionally. There is marked reduction for free play. Many school children and teenagers are given less time and fewer physical outlets in the schools and collages.

Parents are given messages like good parents expose their children to every opportunity to excel, buy lot of enrichment tools, and ensure their children participate in a wide variety of activities. Thus children, from early infancy are exposed to videos, computer programs , specialized books and toys for adequately stimulating for excelled development. And in addition there are after school activities and programs available to enrich the child's environment. These activities do help the child grow in rich environment, but this fast paced/Hurry lifestyle can make the child experience stress and anxiety. As every child is not same, some of them may not be able to cope up with the competition and physically and emotionally get drained. Moreover, child-parent time is restricted and enduring relationships cannot be build properly.

So it is very important to balance between preparing child for future and living fully in the present through play, child-centered organized activities and rich parent-child interaction. And it is likely that the balance that needs to be achieved will be different for every child on the basis of the child's academic needs, temperament, environment and the family's needs.

Thus this competitive era is producing young people who are worried about high achievement, and good grades and core values such as honesty, truth, patience, perseverance etc are kept aside.

So as parents, professionals it is our responsibility to give a child chance to develop not just intellectually, but also physically, emotionally, socially . Encouraging active and non-directive play will contribute to overall development.