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As children develop the type of play they experience changes with their growing minds and bodies. As they progress through the stages of play; solitary play, parallel play and concluding with cooperative play children learn not only the physical requirements for using playground equipment, but also develop cognitive skills that will assist them through the stages of cognitive development. According to Piaget (1951) cognitive development occurs in children through interaction with their environment.
What is play?
Play is a freely chosen activity, largely self-motivated and self directed (Sebastian-Nicholl & Milne 1992). Free play is not restricted to the physical development, but also includes cognitive development. Through play children learn language skills, social, emotional, decision-making and problem solving skills and cultural development.
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Play includes:
Gross motor activity such as pulling, pushing, climbing, steering, swinging and hanging;
Locomotor experience such as crawling, stair and ladder climbing, walking, running and jumping;
Balancing experiences such as static balance while still and dynamic balance while moving;
Body and space perception involves places to climb in, movement in space, force of motion, body-object relationships, i.e. on, under, behind;
Fine muscle development involving using tools or hand operated activities.
Cognitive development including reasoning, perception, memory, intuition, language and all other ways of understanding.
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