Source: ‘Open Education’

The ongoing data is becoming exceedingly clear. If you want to see normal social, emotional and cognitive development in your children, then you must allow them the opportunity for free and imaginative play.

In her article published in the Scientific American, The Serious Need for Play, Melinda Wenner sums up the data this way: “imaginative play is crucial for normal social, emotional and cognitive development” and such play as a youngster “makes us better adjusted, smarter and less stressed.”

When it comes to play, the emphasis is on the word free. Wenner stresses the latter word stating, “Imaginative and rambunctious free play, as opposed to games or structured activities, is the most essential type.”

And while the impact of free play is most critical to social and emotional development, the overall impact on cognition is considered very significant as well, particularly when children involve the world of make believe.

The Research
Wenner notes the research of several people. She begins with psychiatrist Stuart Brown of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who spent some time working with Charles Whitman, the man who climbed to the top of a University of Texas Tower in 1966 and shot 46 people.

More of the story,
click image