The Importance of Child’s Play

Why Playtime and Recess are Important at Every Daycare or Preschool

There aren’t many of us who would say that downtime or recreational time isn’t important for adults. We understand that, in able to undertake life’s tasks on a daily basis, we need the stress-release that our adult “downtime” offers us. But it seems that as of late, the academic community has lessened the importance of play for children. Where we find our free time imperative to our successful growth in career and relationships, we’ve somehow not applied those same beliefs to our children.

Where We Lost Our Way in Regards to Play

During the late 1980′s it was found that 96% of schools offered at least one recess period for their students. By the late 1990′s that number had dropped to only 70% for even kindergarten-aged children. This gap left many children without playtime.

Time dedicated to free play for children has shown to help develop creativity, increase dexterity and coordination, improve cognitive development and strengthen emotional responses. By allowing school children recess from studies, we encourage them to build social skills and learn how to work within groups and solve conflicts. Playtime is believed to be so important to the full development of children that the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has recognized it as a right of every child.

We Believe in the Benefits of Playtime at all of our daycare locations

By providing children the opportunity to play while at daycare or preschool, the facilitation of proper childhood development serves to supplement class time learning. At Foundations for Learning, south Windsor’s favorite daycare facility, we believe in the varied benefits of both adult-facilitated and personal free-time play. Through the day we strive to find many opportunities for children, at every developmental stage, to engage in play in order to foster well-rounded, well-adjusted and happy children.