Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/when-a-child-doesnt-play/5022138/
Play is the vehicle through which children explore, learn, build relationships, and acquire skills. Play fosters the expression of curiosity, laughter, enthusiasm, resourcefulness, and creativity. Play encourages independent learners. It requires the ability to imagine, plan, engage, reflect, pretend, construct, make choices, manipulate, examine, question, collaborate, cooperate, make decisions, create, and solve problems. Play engages children physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally. Play engages the senses. It is how children come to understand the world, utilize surplus energy, cope with fears and anxiety, and manage emotional states. The very nature of play helps develop positive dispositions toward learning. Play is the way children learn. However, not all children know how to play, and not all children develop these skills in play experiences.Some children wander about the classroom, pausing to observe and then moving on to another group of children, then another, never stopping to engage in play. Others dabble in play, that is, they move objects around but are
not fully engaged. Still others feel rejected, anxious or aloof, never feeling like a valued member of the group, looking for solace rather than play. These children need the support of their teachers. Children are, of course, complex human beings and understanding ...