John Gakumba, a resident of Kacyiru, says that playing really transformed his three-year-old son. Being an only child, he didn’t play, at the age of two, he gained interest in watching cartoons.
He then started watching videos on the phone to the extent that he would only eat while watching nursery rhymes or ‘Teletubbies’ on YouTube. This took an unhealthy turn as he started eating excess food due to divided attention.
Playing wasn’t part of the little boy’s life until Gakumba took him to a kindergarten. Life changed completely — he learnt to play and interact with other children.
Playing made him active, happy, lively, socially collaborative and he expressed himself easily. His sleeping routine also changed for the better.
According to the ‘Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development’, play is a legitimate right of childhood, representing a crucial aspect of children’s physical, intellectual and social development.
The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) states that play is one of the most important ways in which young children gain essential knowledge and skills. For this reason, play opportunities and environments that promote play, exploration and hands-on learning are at the core of effective pre-primary programmes.
UNICEF is of the view that play should involve some degree of agency, enabling children to take on an active role and ownership in their experiences, as well as recognising and trusting children to be capable, autonomous, and agents of their own playful learning journeys.
"Children play to make sense of the world around them, and to find meaning in an experience by connecting it to something already known. Through play, children express and expand their understanding and experiences. Play is joyful and actively engaging, children who play become deeply involved, often combining physical, mental and verbal engagement,” reports UNICEF.
For Knight Kuta, a teacher at Mai Childhood Academy, Nyamirambo, play refers to the activities of children that nurture their behavioural, social and psychomotor skills.
She notes that play is imperative since it is through play that a child’s brain is developed, leading to maturity in communication and language skills.
Through play, children’s creativity and innovativeness is improved, they get to interact with others. Play should be fostered amongst children for it nurtures them positively, Kuta adds.
She adds that play allows children to communicate ideas, understand others through social interaction, thus building deeper understanding and stronger relationships.
"The persistent exposure to new things and activities moulds and thrives the children’s vocabulary, and as they talk about what they are engaging in, they practice using language and learning grammar and sentence construction. If play is not directed, it assists children to learn how to work in groups, share, reach an agreement, resolve conflicts, and build self-support skills,” Kuta explains.
She says that parents are the first playmates of their children as they talk to them and sing to them even before they learn to talk.
She emphasises that play is also fun when parents or caretakers spend some time being silly, just to be part of the game. Parents playing with their children creates a strong bond between them. Playing also allows the parent to view the world through the eyes of a child.
Experts on childhood development note that each child’s behaviour in play develops in stages, for instance, onlooker behaviour (watching what other children are doing, but not joining in the play), solitary play (playing alone without regard for others; being involved in independent activities like playing with blocks or other materials), parallel activity (playing near others but not interacting, even using the same play materials), associative play (playing in small groups with no definite rules or assigned roles) and cooperative play (deciding to work together to complete a building project or pretend play with assigned roles for all of the members of the group.)