Interactive play is one of how a child learns.
Interactive play is fun but also an instrument that helps children in learning about themselves and the world at large. While children play, they learn to proffer solution to problems, learn to get along with people around them,as well as develop fine and gross motor skill required for their growth. A child develops self-esteem and pleasure when offers the opportunity to explore his or her ability and capability and feels confident about what he or she is capable of doing. Children get engrossed in what they do because of the fun they derive from it. Engagement of children in interactive play will help them learn in someways discussed below.
- PHYSICAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Movement such as crawling, walking, and grasping of toys develop gross motor skills in a child. In an interactive play such as obstacle course where children run, jump, hold, roll, and spin, a child, tends to develop physical skills that help in the stabilization of the muscles of the body. Other than the development of gross motor skills, a child also learns to use their fingers, wrist, and toes to do certain things such as using the fingers to hold a pen for writing. Thisis an example of fine motor skill.
- COGNITIVE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
A positive relationship exists between pretend play and a child cognitive development. Many cognitive strategies arise during pretense play,such as joint planning, negotiation, problem-solving, and goal seeking.A child becomes problem-solver because of his curiosity to know. In a puzzle game, he keeps placing the piece of the puzzlewhere he thinks it fits until he finally gets the appropriate place. Although he his playing, his cognitive skill is gradually developing.
- CONCENTRATION AND ATTENTION
Also, through the puzzle game, a child learns about color, number, size, and shapes and this sharpens his memory and builds his attention span. A higher level of thought will be attained as they play in a more challenging environment.Children become more focus with interactive play like “the coin game,” they are bound to memorize the pattern and arrangement of the coin on the table before it’s enclosure. The more they play, the higher their concentration and attention span.
- LANGUAGE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Interaction with people either through singing or parents playing pretending play with their child where communication is constant helps in developing the language skills of a child. Telling abstract stories and jokes also builds attention span and imagination in a child. Singing improves learning because it is during the process a child can differentiate between words, learns how to read and spell as well.
- SOCIAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Through interactive play, a child develops social skills, negotiation, cooperation, and rules applicable in every game. All these skills shaped a child’s knowledge as he grows because steadily he can apply them to real life situation where he understands the roles and rules of the society. Few of the interactive play that helps to social skills developmentare playdough, parachute, and playing house.
- MATHEMATICAL SKILLS
Interactive play helps to fire up the neurons that build mathematical skill early in life. There are many ways in which children make fun out of mathematics. For example, dropping toys and picking up teaches a child about sequence and series. Playing with your child by sorting toys according to size, color, and shape is a way of him learning classifying skills. Most children develop an understanding of addition and subtraction through everyday interactions.
- CREATIVITY
Great ideas and imagination in a child are products of interactive play. Take, for example, blocks play is an open-ended play suitable for building all sort of things (a car, a house, a phone). A child gets to know that there are lots of different ways to do things and solve problems as a consequence of interactive play. It is of great interest to a child to apply new ideas from their imagination to proffer a solution to a problem.
- COORDINATION SKILLS
A recent report on child development hinted that coordination skills are developed in children when they engage in ball games. Many children grow stronger with their engagement in sports, they learn to balance and use their body in a coordinated way. Through coordination skills, most toddlers have learned how to write neatly without crossing the line, the flow in their writing is perfect.
- EMOTIONAL SKILLS
Emotional skill is crucial to a child’s development; it helps to understand oneself and others around you. If a child does not possess this skill, it will be difficult to perform and behave in an orderly manner. Emotionalintelligenceis acquired through interactive play as a child learns about himself and others.Interactive play wiresa child brains for more empathy and boostshis/her knowledge and understanding as regarding people and the world!
- COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
One of the many benefits of interactive play is cooperation, one of the natural knowledge children derive from playing. We may associate taking turns and sharing with collective responsibility because children learn to wait for their turn, play their part, then pass on to the next player. They learn that for their team to be successful, every hand must be on the desk when called.
- SELF-CONFIDENCE
Engaging in interactive play makes kids gain the self-confident required in new challenges and environment. Without pre-knowledge when playing with the toys, children are usually with the belief that they can get the best out of their playing materials. A child’s learning ability increases as he/she builds self-esteem while interacting with people in different kinds of interactive play.
Learning at childhood would be fun if children are allowed to do things that they like. Their passion for whatever they engage in brings out the creativity in them. In most cases, the brilliant and exceptional kids in school develop many skills through interactive play. Parents should endeavor to talk to their kids a lot, about daily activities. It gives them an opportunity to teach them how things work in reality.