Rebecca Escutia

4-13-2016

Personal Play Philosophy

HD 311 Play Across the Lifespan

Hacienda/La Puente Cohort

 Play is an important element of daily life. Play is involved throughout the day of a childs

daily routine. Some adults on the other hand forget the benefits of play. Play comes in different

shapes and forms to meet the interest of an individual. While all aspects of play are as important

as the other, role-play is crucial for the mind, body and soul of both children and adults.

Imagination is a form of human thought characterized by the ability of the individual to

reproduce images or concepts originally derived from the basic senses, but now reflected
in ones consciousness as memories, fantasies or future plan. (Singer & Singer,
Imagination and Play in the Electronic Age, p.16)

I have learned through the lectures of this class that play can benefit both children and

adults by relieving their stress, and help them escape reality. It gives them the opportunity to be

someone else for the time being. It can help people express themselves in ways they are unable

to on their own time. Play can bring joy and laughter into their lives, which can be healthy for

the state of mental health.

Play can help children re-in act traumatic experiences. For those who have suffered a

traumatic experience such as abuse or anything that has caused fear upon them can find it

difficult to speak out about the situation. Some children have a difficult time expressing

themselves due to a language barrier, and play can help encourage those children to express their

feelings through role-play with peers or by using dolls. I have learned from my students that

children use dolls to imitate behaviors they have seen in others. Play can also help children

develop social skills and strengthen their language.

During make believe play children learn the social skills of sharing, taking turns,
cooperating with each other. Vygotsky believed that pretend play served as a foundation
for social awareness and social skills. (Singer & Singer, p.36)

Role- play helps children strengthen their cognitive development by allowing them to

problem solve either on their own, or with peers. Role- play is a great way to introduce culture
awareness. There are many multicultural materials that can be used to inform children how

everyone in the world is different and special in their own way. Allowing children to explore

dolls, clothing, different types of foods and music can help expose children to the different

cultures in the world.

Children learn through play. Playing gives them the opportunity to stimulate their

imagination. It enhances their social and emotional development by allowing them to freely

express themselves. This can serve as a form of therapy for children. Some children may have

difficulty expressing their emotions, and this could be done through role-playing activities.

Children can express their feelings through role-play or re in act someone elses feelings giving

them a sense to understand how other people feel. All these strategies and domains that are

learned through role-play can help both children and adolescence in adulthood. Adults need to be

able to communicate, and work with others. Its important to be able to express their feelings in

order to resolve conflicts in their life or work environment. Problem solving skills begin at an

early age. Children learn through play how to wait their turn, to share, and to use their words to

express their needs. For adults, hearing their children imitate an adult through role play can help

the adult get information about how the child perceives them as a parent or a teacher.

Play can help adults re live their childhood. Whether its used to express happiness, or

cope with different emotions. Parents can use play to show their children games they enjoyed

playing as a child. Meanwhile this helps strengthen the bond between parent and child. Play for

adults can also be during sex and used for intimacy. Sexual play can help strengthen and fulfill

interest within a relationship.

Play for any individual is doing something they enjoy doing on their own time. Families

can play outdoors, indoors or take family trips together. Sports are also a form of play for both
the children and the adults in the family. Communities and Society can support play by offering

recreational activities. Hosting local events for families to attend can also help people enjoy

festivities. Some schools offer sports and other extra curricular after school activities. Schools

that offer these after school activities help engage children to become involved with their school.

Schools should really encourage students to play during recess to release any energy that

students have during class time. Quite often recess is taken away from students for behavior

problems given during class time or for not completing homework assignments. Children need

their recess time to play and get rid of that energy they have within so they can focus better

during class time. I have seen in my work place when teachers eliminate a childs outdoor time

for not following the classroom schedule. The child is asked to stay inside the classroom with

another staff member until the child shows that he or she is ready to follow the rules outside.

This cuts down their time to play outdoors which can decrease their ability to learn something

new during outdoor play.

I have experienced teachable moments in the dramatic play area at work. We often do

literacy activities using puppets to tell stories, or re in act conflicts that occur in the classroom.

Showing the children the same issue through the puppets help get them engaged to problem

solve and to think of a better solution to handle the problem that occurred.

We do have increasing evidence, however, that within the lives of contemporary adults,
the capacity for imaginative thought begins to appear by the third year of life when
children start to play games of pretending, to verbalize their stories out loud, and to use
phrases like lets make believe. (Singer & Singer, p.1)

Stories help promote role-play by allowing children to retell the story in their own words.

This broadens their imagination level and extends language as well because there are always

opportunities for introducing new vocabulary words during story time.

 Developing this philosophy paper has made me realize all the different ways that play can

affect children in a positive way. Ive always known how important play was for children and

that it helped them learn specific things but there were so many more details that I learned about

role play and the different domains that are met through role playing. I learned that children and

adolescents need role-play while growing up to help them successfully solve problems and

communicate as adults.

There is no particular way to play. There is no right or wrong way to play. Exploring,

initiating, and following are all part of the learning process. Recognizing that all play is

important to implement in our daily lives, but role-play is where it all begins.
 Reference List

Singer, D. G., & Singer, J. L. (2007). Imagination and Play in the

Electronic Age. Harvard University Press.