The Importance of Play in a Childs Development The majority of research done by Cognitive Psychologists dealing with human cognition has revealed it to be related to the human imagination. As evident by the fact that many psychologist view the process of thinking as the forming of mental representations and through the manipulation of these imaginative images we come to form thoughts. Thus, the imaginative skills a child learns during play are vital for that childs successful develop into a well adapted and functional adult. Through the simply act of play a childs ability to create mental icons is stimulated because a childs activity during play is mainly imaginary. In this imaginary world children learn to deal with reality and for this reason a childs play-time activities have a great bearing on their social, emotional, behavioral, and overall cognitive development. Therefore, to coin a phrase used in a, Families Today, column authored by T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., with Dr. Joshua Sparrow, play is a childs work.Play, like all other human behaviors, appears to be vital for an individuals survival. The value of play to our growth as a species is illustrated by the actuality that it facilities a childs needed exploration of their environment. Furthermore, a child at play is not only developing basic motor skills but is also beginning to understand how the world relates to them personally because plays seems to further the nature psychological ability present in each person child of object permanence. This ability to imagine, an object even though it is not presently sensed, as the text says, is the foundation of human cognition. In effect, the fantasies created by a child during play which the text summarized as, a pleasurable activity engaged in for its own sake, with means emphasized rather than ends, which is, not usually engaged in as a serious activity and is flexible in that it varies in form or context, stimulates and cul...
