If you are a parent of a toddler you must have seen him playing for hours with a simple cardboard box or having funtime with utensils or a piece of paper. Kids tend to play for a long time with the most commonplace items throwing them around or banging them.You must have wondered why your kids play with all these simple items despite having age-appropriate toys.This play stage is called functional play, which starts during infancy and continuous most probably till the age of 2. According to the teachers of Montessori Pasadena CA, functional play is a powerful tool for developing cognitive and social skills.

What is functional play?

Any repetitive action that your child find enjoyable is considered as functional play. Throwing and banging objects, opening and closing things, stacking blocks and then knocking them over,pushingand pulling toys,all are the examples of functional play.Through these activitiesthey try to explore the properties of different objects which will help them in learning more complex skills in future.

Some of the benefits of functional play:

Stimulate early brain development: Playing can promote children’s brain development in many ways as it provides crucial life experiences to set the grounds for brain growth. In Montessori Pasadena CA, kids are encouraged in functional play as an environment enriched with play and play materials provide the perfect life experiences to build that foundation.

Skill development: Functional play is a powerful activity for children’s holistic development. Play develops their problem-solving skills through exploring the properties of different objects and how things work together. They also understand the concepts of hard/soft, fast/slow, smooth/rough, dry/wet etc.The functional play also helps children to develop their social and language skills.

Spark Creative thinking: Many parents would agree that playing with different objects increases children's creativity. Creativity is closely connected with divergent thinking which motivates children to explore all the possible solutions to generate creative ideas.Pretendplay is also a functional play which requires a childto imagine a scene and then acts it out.Playing these types ofgames allows children to be creative.

Improved communication, vocabulary and language: Montessori Pasadena CA, teachers encourage children to imagine a sceneandact it out with some imaginary characters. They believe pretend play is especially beneficial for kids as it allows young children to practice their vocabulary when they speak and understand others.During social play, they often reciprocate each other’s language and actions to reach a common objective.

Promote impulse control and emotion regulation: To have self-control over their emotions is one of the most essential skills for children to be ready for school. It has been observed that well-regulated children can wait for their turn,control their emotions, and can resisttheir temptation to grab any objects from other children.Self-control is not only essential for academic success but also determine their social success. Children who exhibit better emotional control in preschool, are more likeable and socially competent.