Why Play?

“The preschool child enters in an imaginary, illusory world in which the unrealizable desires can be realized, and this world is what we call play.”

— Vygotsky (1978)

1. Play develops neuropathways

Experiences and neuropathways are directly related to play. Therefore, the more sensory experiences a child has, the faster the transmission will occur, the stronger the synaptic connections are.

2. Play develops base patterns

Base patterns determine how we process and react to incoming information. Movement opportunities will balance base patterns and make sensory activities a positive experience. In turn, this will help students organize, sort, and integrate information they receive during the school day.

3. Play helps with working memory

You can use movement to help students anchor their thoughts. Research shows kinesthetic activities are powerful in the classroom in aiding student understanding. Movement helps us use both sides of the brain.

Movement and the Senses

We are all familiar with our five senses: the sense of taste, touch, hearing, smell, and sight, we may not be as familiar with the vestibular sense and proprioceptive sense.

However, these two senses could arguably be the most important to your child’s learning

1. Vestibular

The vestibular sense is housed in the inner ear and is commonly known to maintain balance. However, vestibular activities integrate play with cognitive processing. The more opportunities a child is given for vestibular activities throughout the school day, the more readily available they will be to receive cognitive information.

2. Proprioceptive

The proprioceptive sense is our subconscious awareness of our body. A child who has difficulty with the proprioceptive sense may be the one who is squeezing a juice box too tight because they are unaware of the pressure needed to hold the juice.

While it may not be noticeable to us adults as observers, these children may be working really hard just to keep their bodies in their seats while the teacher is instructing the class.

Let the magic of play happen in a child's life and then observe the creativity and the power of imagination.