Usefulness of Play

The importance of play in cognitive development of children cannot be ignored. It has been established that children learn the various uses of objects when they are allowed to play with them than when other means of teaching are used. This indicates that play plays an important role in the process of learning among children where the children are given platforms to try the various ways that an object can be put into use.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Usefulness of Play specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This paper seeks to examine the relationship that exists between playing among the children and how play helps develop their imaginative skills. The paper also examines the relationship that exits between psychological coping and resiliency, and how this relationship may help a child when confronted with a dangerous situation. Lastly, the paper examines whether the strategies adopted at childhood are still useful in adulthood or at advanced stages of childhood or adolescence stage. As noted by Hardman, Drew Egan (2010), the extent to which a child is classified as playful or otherwise has a high significance to the child’s level of creativity. Playful children tend to be more creative as they get higher chances to interact with the phenomenon hence expanding their cognitive development. When children are subjected to a test to determine the possible alternative uses of an object, it has been observed that children marked as more playful always have the tendency to score higher in the alternative use tests. This is an indication that playful children may have better chances of developing their cognitive abilities as opposed to the less playful children. It is important to note that some children who may not be externally playful may indicate tendencies of being internally playful. Children who are classified as internally playful also exhibit higher levels of creativity than the child ren who are neither physically nor internally playful. Internal playfulness is normally measured by examining the levels of feelings of happiness, the sense of humor, joy and lastly, active involvement (Hardman, Drew Egan, 2010). Internally playful children have higher rates of internal imagination than other children, which indicates that play has an immense contribution to the level of imagination as well as other forms of cognitive development among children. As far as psychological coping and resiliency is concerned, play among the children has invaluable roles. Among the leading role of play in enhancing psychological coping and resiliency among children is the fact that play induces a sense of relaxation, which helps improve the state of a child to cope with various aspects and to bounce back to the normal psychological state before being disturbed by a specified stressor.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More As children play with one another, they tend to learn important interpersonal skills that comes in handy should coping skills be needed. Besides this, playing allows children to come face-to-face with various aspects of real life experiences such as winning and loosing. As children learn how it feels to lose and learn to look forward for a win in the future, their ability to keep their â€Å"cool† in times of a loss is increased. This improves their resilience not only in times of playing, but also when confronted with various real life experiences. Another aspect that makes play to be an important aspect for the development of coping and resilience traits is the fact that play forces the children to always be in a situation where they are either faced with a win or a loss. Since the main aim of any player is to win a game, the playful children are always cognitively forced to devise new methods to ensure that they win the game even when they are t railing their opponents. On the other hand, those who are leading have no choice, but to ensure that they are not overturned by their opponents to become the losers. The psychological feelings of the need to win even where there is little hope of winning a game makes children to develop resilience skills that are useful not only while they are playing, but also in many other facets of life. In a sharp contrast, children who are not playful may end up not developing these skills which make them have poor resilience skills when confronted with real life experiences. As already noted, play has a significant role in improving the creativity and the coping as well as resilience traits among the children. These traits can prove to be valuable if a child who possesses them is faced with a dangerous situation. First, since the child is already creative due to the benefits accrued from play, such child can device various avenues to come out of the risky scenario successfully. The developed i maginative skills can prove helpful in risky scenarios in that a child can devise various alternatives depending on the nature of risk as opposed to a child who has less developed imaginative skills. For instance, a child playful child who is inquisitive of what can be done with various objects can device new uses for the object at hand to act as a weapon to mitigate the risk. As far as resilience is concerned, a child presented with a risky situation is able to cope effectively as he or she can make informed choices due to the ability to remain calm, despite the risk. Unlike a child who has no coping and resilience skills, a child who has gained these traits from play is most likely going to make informed choices as the chances of panicking are minimal than for those children who are less playful. As people age, the relationship between play and imagination as well as resilience also changes. This means that people must remain adaptive so that the strategies adopted meets the poten tial dangers that may present themselves. This means that strategies that are useful at childhood cannot remain useful throughout one’s life.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Usefulness of Play specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There is a need to have newer strategies to ensure that the challenges that are presented to people are successfully solved. Therefore, it is evident that as people age, they need to be presented with more complex play scenarios that can motivate their brain activity to make more advanced choices as well as to develop more coping skills which can prove useful in case of a risky situation. In conclusion, it is evident that play leads to more creative children, which enhances their normal coping skills. Play enhances cognitive development in children that in turn enhance their ability to devise meaningful relationships with the situations that are presented to them. It is also importan t to note that play enhances one’s ability to cope with strenuous situations, a trait that is normally transferred to the real life situations. Also, play leads to feelings of relaxation that are vital in decision making process. Therefore, it is important that the role of play in cognitive development is not undermined especially in children as play has proved to be a resourceful activity as far as acquiring of necessary traits is concerned. Reference Hardman, M., L. Drew, C., J. Egan M., W. (2010). Human Exceptionality: School, Community, and Family. 10th Ed. Upper Saddle River: Cengage Learning, 2010. This essay on Usefulness of Play was written and submitted by user Ezra Burch to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Outsider In Silas Marner Essays

The Outsider In Silas Marner Essays The Outsider In Silas Marner Paper The Outsider In Silas Marner Paper Essay Topic: Literature Silas Marner is a novel that explores many different key themes. George Elliot has made this novel a very deep and meaningful story with complex characters and twisting plot. She has used a very wide range of technical and methodological language to bring the character of Silas Marner to life. Silas Marner is a weaver from the town of Lantern Yard. Silas suffers from cataleptic fits and left Lantern Yard after being accused of stealing money. William Dane set him up. Silas felt betrayed by his friend and there was no Justice. Silas moved to the village of Ravaloe where there is a close community. The villagers start to separate from him and exclude him from their community. Silas becomes very isolated and spends a lot of his time caring for and hoarding the gold that he has worked so hard for. This is bought across by Elliots words, for it was pleasant to him to feel them in his palm, and look at their bright faces, which were all his own.(P17) This makes the gold seem almost like something that is living. The reader feels that Silas is attached to his gold and that he looks to it as if it were a pet or a relative. The word faces makes them sound creature like and it is Elliots clever use of such metaphors that puts ideas into the readers mind throughout the novel. Silas strange obsession with his gold adds to the suspicion of the villagers and separates Silas even more from their close-knit community. The villagers of Ravaloe are all very close and have known each other all or most of their lives. They dont accept people from other villages very well and Silas is not helped by his odd appearance and his cataleptic fits. The villagers are so involved in their own lives that Silas appearance and fits horrify them and they begin to label him as a freak. It was at church that the villagers first saw Silas have a fit. They started to say that he was to do with Satan. This trance looked more like a visitation of Satan than a proof of divine favour, and exhorted his friend to see that he hid no accursed thing within his soul. This shows the ignorance of the villagers and their negative attitudes toward outsiders. This view is carried throughout the first section of the novel and it is only when Silas approaches them that they become to accept him. The villagers are very superstitious about people from outside their village or people that they dont know. They wouldnt try and socialise with them but instead start rumours and superstitions about the outsiders. They are exceptionally suspicious about Silas because of his strange appearance and his cataleptic fits. He is often referred to as an insect in the novel. For example on page 17 his basic, lonely life is likened to the life of a spinning insect. It is almost a hint at him being a spider. The fact that he is a weaver and his life is likened to a spinning insect all refer to things a spider would do. Silas becomes very close to his money and when he finds out it is missing he was horrified. He decides that it has been stolen and he accuses Jem Rodney. Silas decides to go to the pub and ask the villagers if they could help him retrieve his beloved money. The villagers are surprised by the appearance of Silas who enters the pub stating his loss. Jem Rodney denies the charge and Silas apologises, as he knows about being wrongly accused. The men are helpful and suggest that there must be some clues to track down the thief. Mr Dowlas and Mr Snell go out into the dark to help Silas. This is where the villagers begin to really turn towards Silas and begin to accept him into their tight community. The villagers even start to try and comfort Silas by visiting his house with gifts. Silas is even asked to go to church and he begins to become part of the community. Another big turning point in the novel is when Mollys baby is found by Silas. Silas sees the baby (Eppie) as his gold. The heap of gold seemed to glow and get larger beneath his agitated gaze. He leaned forward at last, and stretched forth his hand but instead of the hard coin with the familiar resisting outline, his fingers encountered soft warm curls. This shows how obsessed Silas became about his gold. What he was seeing was a babies golden hair but in his mind it is his heap of gold. Silas becomes attached to the child and decides that he is going to keep it. The villagers begin to see Silas as a good man who is trying to bring up a child single-handed and they offer him advice. Silas has her christened Hephzibah, Eppie for short, after his mother. This chapter outlines Eppie being naughty and Silas cannot bring himself to punish her. The presence of the child starts to transform Silas. Silas money is found along side Dunstan and Silas tells how his live revolved around his gold. Godfrey feels that he should make up for his brothers behaviour and offers to take Eppie away from him and remove the burden. Eppie refuses and Silas loves her so much that he is prepared to fight to keep her. Dunstan ends up with no child and is punished. Silas and Eppie become part of the community and the villagers no longer see Silas as a freak. Eppie has helped Silas become accepted because when Silas accepted her as his daughter the villagers began to comfort Silas and see him as a caring person. It is when they see that he is caring that they begin to see that he isnt all the things that he is rumoured to be, but actually he is just like them. Silas and Eppie go back to Lantern Yard and find that it has gone. Silas is saddened by this but realises that Ravaloe is his home now.