By Dr. Sweta Shah, Aga Khan Foundation
What do all children around the world have in common? They love to play! Play is a basic and natural thing that all humans crave. It helps children (and adults) make sense out of the world and to process their experiences. While play brings joy to children’s lives, it is also critical for their brain development, future learning and ability to contribute to society and the world.
Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child has found that during the early years of life, up to 1 million neural connections can be made per second while children take in the world through exploration and play. Through play, children can develop not only reading, writing and math skills, but also important life skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, negotiation, creativity, empathy and more.
At the Aga Khan Foundation, we believe in the power of play to shape young minds, prepare them for school success and create peaceful, prosperous, pluralistic societies. As children pretend to be fictional characters or play with classmates from other religions or ethnic backgrounds, they are starting to process and appreciate the perspectives and experiences of others that are different from them. This is the foundation of pluralism. Play provides a safe place to explore and understand those differences.
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As we work in many fragile and conflict contexts, play becomes critical in reducing stress for children and families as it is fun and allows children to relax. It can be a therapeutic intervention that helps children in difficult circumstances not only survive but thrive through hardship. A critical aspect of the work we do in general and our focus on play is that it’s rooted in children’s cultural and local contexts.
One way we support this is working with teachers, parents, communities and children to make their own toys out of local materials. Not only does this allow play and learning to be locally relevant, but it’s cost effective and better for the environment too.
How do we do this? By integrating toy making workshops as a core part of our professional development for teachers and parents. Teachers and parents bring materials from their immediate environment and creatively design learning materials based on the age of their children.
This toy making process is also a testament to play. Many teachers and parents have indicated that they learned about child development, saved money on toys they would have bought, gained peer support and, most importantly, had FUN!
Universal Children’s Day provides us with an opportunity to remember that children around the world have similar needs and PLAY is at the heart of children’s development.
“Children learn as they play. More importantly, in play, children learn how to learn.”
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