Remember what was it like to play with your parent?

Remember what was it like to play with your parent?

In the month of February, Afrika Tikkun will be promoting the importance of play with a Valentine’s Photo Challenge to parents. It is part of a larger campaign spearheaded by Vanessa Mentor, a champion of early childhood development in South Africa. The aim of the campaign is to promote the benefits of parents playing with their children in the interest of the child’s overall development during early childhood.

By Vanessa Mentor

If I say this year is going to be child’s play, it is not because I think it’s going to be easy or silly. It’s because we will be championing play and its critical importance to the development of the child. In particular, we are championing how important it is when parents or caregivers play with their children.

At some stage of our life we have all heard someone in authority say “stop playing and get to work!” Play is often seen as the opposite of work – being lazy and lack of achievement. At best play is seen as recreation. This is a common misperception and we have a responsibility to advocate for every child’s right to play and have fun.

From the time a baby arrives in this world, he or she is already beginning to learn. 80% of a young child’s brain development takes place before the age of 5 years. Early childhood (from birth to six years) is a time of extreme and rapid physical, mental, emotional, social, moral growth and development. It is a time when they acquire concepts, skills and attitudes that lay the foundation for lifelong learning. These include the acquisition of language, perceptual motor skills required for learning to read and write, basic numeracy concepts and skills, problem solving skills, a love of learning and the establishment and maintenance of relationships. At this age, all these skills are best developed through play and creative activity.

According to Dr Bruce Perry, play more than any other activity fuels the healthy development of children and the continued healthy development of adults.

We start playing in utero – kicking and moving about. From birth we start to play using our bodies to explore our world around us. With our minds, through make believe play, we make sense of our world. Using newly learnt words during play we develop vocabulary and language and using props (blocks, boxes, toys), we extend and enrich our playful learning experiences.

Many of our current generation of children have lost their opportunities to play, with little time for schoolwork and even less time for play. Child headed households is the smallest contributor to children having adult responsibilities. Grannies and parents working long hours, city dwelling, etc., all play a much bigger role. For many, their basic needs are not met and play is seen as a luxury rather than their fundamental right.

I regard it as critical that we help change these circumstances, and educate society to understand that play enhances every domain of a child’s development. Gross motor skills such as crawling, walking, hopping, skipping and running are strengthened when a child pushes a car or toy grocery trolley and jumps with a rope. When they kick a ball they are practicing coordination by balancing on one foot while kicking with the other – integrating both hemispheres of the brain. A child’s cognitive capacity is enhanced when playing games, figuring things out for themselves through trial and error – developing their problem solving skills as they learn to make choices.

Through play a child develops interpersonal and social skills by communicating with others, learning to cooperate with others, teamwork while learning how to become more empathetic and less egocentric. Playing with others, a child learns a system of social rules and the importance of learning to control themselves.

All children have a natural curiosity, to discover things for themselves, to make sense of their environment and the world. Children need our help to release that natural curiosity. By creating fun playful learning opportunities for our children, we help them learn, figure out who they are, how the world works, where they fit in and develop skills they need to learn to read and write.

However not all parents do this – for a number of reasons. And to be fair, we don’t always know the challenges parents face, and in particular those who do it in the midst of poverty and disadvantage. Facing the stress of survival, struggling to get food, money or shelter will tire or distract any parent. Parents may be overworked. They may not see their role as a parent – they may think they need to buy toys or not see the value of play itself. But play doesn’t need to take too much time and can be incorporated into everyday activities. You don’t have to buy toys but should use whatever resources you have around you. This may make for more creative play. It shouldn’t also be seen as women’s work.

As you, the parent or caregiver, engage with the child, you will start to see the child’s level of understanding, interaction, and learning increase. The advice I would give to parents is just be silly, become a child. Think of a memory of you have of playing with your caregiver. Remember the impact that small activity had on you? Children long for their parents to play with them…They feel important, they feel that they matter. They understand what love means from that experience. Play is hugely important, but when a parent and adult shows them it’s important, the impact is so much greater. It makes an indelible mark on a child for the rest of their life.

Investing your time, joy and imagination in your child will not only protect and develop the child but it is also the best guarantee of future peace, security and prosperity for the community at large.

Take part in our February Valentine’s Challenge to Parents. Then carry on those activities we recommend for the rest of the year. You will be making precious memories that will never be forgotten and giving your child and future generations a gift that if given in those early years can never be taken away.

Vanessa Mentor is a subject matter expert in Early Childhood Development for Afrika Tikkun. She has championed play and the importance of early childhood development through this organisation, and before that as Director of the Gauteng Department of Basic Education’s Early Childhood Development Institute. She has worked in this sector for 31 years and is recognised for her contribution to this field. This year she will be pioneering Play Workshops in partnership with Sesame Workshop and the Lego Foundation through Afrika Tikkun. This will be done in partnership with other Early Childhood Development Centres in Gauteng. This is a multi-country initiative that ultimately aims to give parents and ECDs globally the tools to use play to develop children in early childhood.