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February 24, 2025If you’re familiar with Voice of Play and our commitment to promoting the growth in the quantity and quality of children’s free play and the use of playgrounds, you’re likely aware of the many benefits of play. From the ability to regulate emotions to the development of higher self-confidence and self-esteem, play is far too important to be seen only as an “extracurricular” activity.
Research shows, though, that children are growing up with more on their plate than ever before, which can lead to stress, anxiety—and less time to connect with themselves and others through free play. At Voice of Play, we believe this serves as an important reminder that children should be encouraged to play—solo or with others—in an unstructured environment for at least an hour a day.
And the benefits speak for themselves. Today, we’ll explore two of those benefits as part of our ongoing series covering the important benefits of play with the goal of encouraging parents and caregivers to help children find and make time to play freely.
Photo credit: Pixabay
Benefits for the Body
When we think of the positive outcomes that come from play, we most often think of the physical. In fact, play is critical for a child’s physical development from an early age. Consider, for example, a toddler learning to crawl by moving towards his favorite stuffed animal or learning to balance by reaching for a toy train on the couch above her. Even the simplest of forms of play—a pretend tea party, for example—can help strengthen important muscles in the wrists, improve hand-eye coordination and hone small, fine-motor skills that can be learned by pouring fake tea into a plastic teacup.
As children grow, play may become more active—playing hopscotch in the driveway, biking for the first time without training wheels, or competing in a neighborhood soccer tournament. The physical benefits of this form of play are a bit more obvious, but just as important. By being involved in physical activity, children are helping support the growth of strong bones and improving heart and lung function. At the same time, consistent physical activity is key to a healthy lifestyle and helps prevent obesity in particularly at-risk populations. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children ages 3-5 engage in physical activity throughout the day—through recess, gym class, extracurriculars, and playtime—and children 6-17 get at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day.
It’s important to note that modeling physical activity for children is absolutely vital to creating healthy habits, like regular movement and exercise, particularly as they grow. At Voice of Play, we’re big on family play time and intergenerational play, which offers an opportunity for families to bond together through play. By incorporating physical activity into your entire family’s routines, you can help lead by example to create habits that will last a lifetime. Below are a few examples of physical activity that can be done regularly as a family.
Tips for Incorporating Physical Activity into Family Routines
- Get the wiggles out by turning on some music and dancing together.
- Find a new favorite family hobby, such as jumping rope, playing basketball, or biking.
- Take a post-dinner walk around the block.
- Create seasonal traditions, such as raking the leaves (and then jumping into them), running through the sprinkler during a hot summer day, or building a snowman during the first snow of the season.
Benefits for the Brain
If you’re a parent or caregiver, you’ve likely heard about the many “cognitive milestones” that children should be meeting at any given age—these milestones may have even caused you some angst if your child isn’t right “on track.” While these milestones and benchmarks are important to understanding cognitive development, we know that children also growth and develop at different speeds.
The role of play in cognitive development is well researched—dating all the way back to a study by Marian Diamond and colleagues in 1964 that compared the brains of rats raised in a solitary, boring environment with the brains of rats raised in an enriched environment filled with toys. When reviewing the results, it was clear that the rats who were raised with enrichment had thicker cerebral cortexes than those that were not. This indicates that play, enrichment, and activity are vital for the development of cognitive function.
So, what does this look like in humans? Play is vital for a child’s cognitive development, even from an early age. For example, those early (0-3 months) milestones, such as the ability to focus on moving objects, to use facial expressions, and recognize objects at a close distance can all be honed through play activity. At this stage, parents and caregivers can take time to make faces at baby, such as big smiles, encouraging mirrored responses, or show high-contrast (black and white) images or books to help attract their attention and ability to focus.
As children grow and their brains continue to develop, play becomes even more important. They can learn different sounds and tempos through music and instruments, build expressive language and emotion management through imaginative play, and promote curiosity and creativity through outdoor play and nature exploration.
The benefits of play for the brain are limitless. Below are a few tips to help you promote cognitive development through play activities.
Tips for Promoting Child’s Cognitive Development Through Play
- Make sure your child is getting plenty of unstructured, independent play, which gives them the opportunity to be imaginative, creative, and learn self-regulation.
- Matching or sorting activities are great to help children learn how to organize items by shapes and size—try matching pots and pans with the lid of the correct size or have them help matching socks in the laundry.
- Puzzles are a great way to promote concentration and problem solving.
