INTRODUCTION

“Play is essential to development of early childhood age children because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. (Ginsburg, 2007).”At an early age, children are most receptive and can be taught just about anything.

Doing so through an activity that they are familiar with, such as play, allows the child to be taught life skills and habits that they will rely on for the rest of their lives.  Skills such as healthy habits, empathy, fairness, as well as building and maintaining friendships can all be acquired through recreational activities. These are qualities that are of the utmost importance to impart upon children at the earliest age possible because it will pay dividends for them throughout their entire lives.

Through my research, I have found that play has an extremely powerful and positive impact on the physical, cognitive, and psycho-social developmental domains of early childhood stage children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old.  The research done for this project explores the risks involved that can derail healthy development in each domain, the protective factors that support healthy development in them; and milestones that are typically experienced by children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENTAL DOMAIN

Children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old derive substantial benefit physically through play but must avoid risk factors associated with physical development (trauma, nutrition and environment among other things) so that their proper development is not hindered. There are protective factors that safeguard children against those elements such as self-regulation, mastery of communication and language skills, as well as the ability to make friends and get along with others while playing.

Parents can, and should, promote positive development outcomes in the physical domain in many ways through recreational activities.  Development through recreational activities also offers an ideal opportunity for parents to fully engage with their children through physical activities.  Supportive “microsystem” act as a protective factor for all three domains, but offers more to the physical domain then the others; familial bonding.  Bronfenbrenner’s microsystem contains family, friends, teachers, and people around the community that they interact with on a daily basis that can influence development and the child’s decision making process.  “Parental competence/education, supportive grandparents/supportive siblings, family size and level of harmony are all protective measures as well as well as act of models of expected and acceptable behavior (Risk, 2004).”

“It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles (Ginsburg, 2007).”  Through dramatic play children can be anything they want and are only limited by their own imaginations.  Studies have shown that even by taking the time to play make-believe with your kids for a few minutes a day can have a tremendous impact on their development.  Doing so also fulfills the need for quality time that children have with their families that helps them become well adjusted, socially active adults.

A child’s nutritional choices are also a risk to physical development in children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old.  “Overeating can lead to obesity and health problems in the long run, such as diabetes and heart disease. A balanced diet that is rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats is essential for the development of the brain and body (Mahok, 2019).” By keeping an eye on your children’s eating habits you can help them understand the importance of nutrition for proper physical development; by modeling good eating habits and a balanced diet you can show them how important it is.

“A good school and a loving family builds in children strong social and interpersonal skills, which will enable them to excel in other areas such as academics and extracurricular activities (Mahok, 2019).  For this reason, the environment that the child is raised in is seen as the most important factor in most of the developmental domains, not just physical, for children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old.

Despite these risks, and with the help of the protective factors mentioned, there are physical developmental milestones that children should be hitting by certain ages.  Between the ages of 2 and 3 years of age a child should be able to walk up and down stairs, jump off one step, kick a ball, stand and walk on tiptoe, and run and dodge (Scholastic, n.d.).  Between the ages of 3 and 4, a child should be able to walk backward and forward unselfconsciously, turn and stop, jump off low steps or objects, but find it hard to jump over objects.  They begin to ride trikes and pump on swings, stand on one foot unsteadily, and balance with difficulty on low four-inch balance beam while watching their feet; they begin to play actively, but tire suddenly (Scholastic, n.d.). 

Between the ages of 5 and 6 years of age a child should be able to walk backward quickly, skip and run with agility and speed, incorporate motor skills into games, and walk a two-inch balance beam easily.  They begin to jump over objects, hop well, jump down several steps and jump rope.  The child can coordinate movements for swimming or bike riding, show uneven perceptual judgment, and have high energy levels in play while rarely showing signs of fatigue.  The average child will find inactivity difficult and seek active games and environments to enjoy (Scholastic, n.d.).  At the age of 7 years and beyond, a child should have increased coordination for catching and throwing, be able to participate in active games with rules, and sequence motor activities as needed.  In activities such as gymnastics or shooting baskets, the child should have improved reaction time in responding to thrown balls or oncoming vehicles (Scholastic, n.d.).

There are always actionable items that families can do to increase active play in their child, and doing so will promote development in the physical domain.  Using common household objects for some fitness fun and games almost always interests children at a young age. Have recess at home by playing old school throwback games you played as a child at your elementary playground, jumping rope, or doing anything active and as a family that will encourage play for your child.  If physical activity isn’t a viable option at the time, try sensory play or make-believe and role-playing games to encourage kids’ imaginations whenever you can, wherever you are. If you are outdoors have a nature scavenger hunt to get kids exploring the outdoors, learning and observing the world around them while staying active.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DOMAIN

My research question explores the cognitive milestones that are typically experienced between 3 and 8 years old, identifies the risks of not meeting those milestones, and the protective factors that support healthy development in the early childhood years.

As with all of the developmental domains, there are risk factors that can derail healthy cognitive development for any child. As parents and teachers, it is our job to help them avoid these risks at all costs.  “A child’s capacity to control emotions is related to the interactions between his or her biological system and early experiences and attachments. Evidence also suggests that high levels of stress in the earliest years undermine brain development. Thus, children deprived of early warm and nurturing relationships may experience life-long adverse consequences such as impaired school performance and inability to modulate emotions (Risk, 2004).” Typically, trauma and neglect are risk factors are experienced over a long period of time and follow a pattern.

Another developmental risk factor for children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old is depression and substance abuse in in the family.  “Parents coping with depression are especially vulnerable to difficulties in establishing warm and nurturing relationships with their children. Depression has been associated with punitive parenting, as well as with anxiety and aggression in children. Parents suffering from other mental illnesses or substance abuse, or parents who themselves have not experienced nurturing parenting may also be at risk of developing poor relationship patterns with their children (Risk, 2004).” This category of risk factors is not exclusive to just family members, but people in the orbit of family members as well.

The final risk factor explored for this research project was poverty.  “Poverty itself, and the chronic and episodic crises associated with it, may affect parenting, as do community risks such as neighborhoods with high crime rates. With early onset conduct disorder, dysfunction starts early and lasts long, with related delinquency and emotional and behavioral problems reaching into adulthood (Risk, n.d.).” Like trauma, neglect and substance abuse, these risk factors are experienced over a long period of time and follow a pattern.

With risk factors come protective factors that despite the risks facilitate proper and healthy development.  A young child’s environment plays a huge part in healthy development.  “Warm, caring, nurturing, contextually and experientially rich, stimulating environment that provides opportunity for sensory experience and promotes attachment to caregiver and provides stability, security, and structure; low distress (Risk, 2004).”
 A child’s emotional capacity also plays a large role in their development.   “Low emotionality; active, alert, high vigor, drive sociability; easy, engaging temperament (affectionate; cuddly); self-help skills; above average intelligence (language and problem-solving skills) are some of the most prominent desirable personality characteristics in a child that play a huge part as protective factors of a child; the way they handle themselves in high risk situations shows continued cognitive development (Risk, 2004).

In spite of the risks and with the help of protective factors there are milestones a child should be hitting at certain ages.  Between 3 and 4 years old a child should be able to say his or her name and age, speak 250 to 500 words, answer simple questions and speak in sentences of five to six words and speak in complete sentences by age 4.  Between 5 and 6 years old a child should be have a vocabulary of about 2,000 words, compose sentences with five or more words, count up to 10 objects at one time, and know leftfrom right.  Children this age will begin to reason and argue, with words like why and because, they can categorize objects: “These are toys; these are books and can understand concepts like yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  They are able to sit at a desk, follow teacher instructions, and independently do simple in-class assignments.  Between 7 and 8 years old a child should develop a longer attention span and are willing to take responsibility for their actions. By this age they understand the value and use of money, can tell time and can readily name months and days of the week in order.

Parents can promote positive developmental outcomes in the cognitive domain in many ways, including but not limited to playing cards games, reading books, telling jokes or solving riddles together.  Parents should encourage stacking and building activities, do simple jigsaw puzzles and play memory games.  Proactive parents can encourage their child to help with cooking, preschoolers can learn a lot from measuring, counting and naming healthy ingredients for family meals (Play, n.d.).

There are always actionable items that families can do to increase active play in their child, and doing so will promotes development in the cognitive domain.  Families can listen to music together, do art projects or look at each other in the mirror and make observations about one another. Very simply a parent can take their child outside to play.  “Outdoor playtime has been shown as a particularly effective way to improve cognition in kids (10 ideas, n.d.).

PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENTAL DOMAIN

“This area of development (Psychosocial) involves learning to interact with other people, and to understand and control your own emotions. Babies start to develop relationships with the people around them right from birth, but the process of learning to communicate, share, and interact with others takes many years to develop. Developing the ability to control your emotions and behavior is also a long process (Social, n.d.).”  The psychosocial domain is no different from the other two; it has risk and protective factors alike and has activities that help maintain healthy development through recreational activities.

The first, and one of the more prominent factors, that could throw healthy development into disarray is trauma, abuse, neglect, and their impact on brain development.  “A child’s capacity to control emotions is related to the interactions between his or her biological system and early experiences and attachments. Evidence also suggests that high levels of stress in the earliest years undermine brain development. Thus, children deprived of early warm and nurturing relationships may experience life-long adverse consequences such as impaired school performance and inability to modulate emotions (Risk, 2004).” Typically, these risk factors are experienced over a long period of time and follow a pattern.
A similarly dangerous factor that plays a part in a child’s healthy development is depression and substance abuse in the family.  “Parents coping with depression are especially vulnerable to difficulties in establishing warm and nurturing relationships with their children. Depression has been associated with punitive parenting, as well as with anxiety and aggression in children. Parents suffering from other mental illnesses or substance abuse, or parents who themselves have not experienced nurturing parenting may also be at risk of developing poor relationship patterns with their children (Risk, 2004).” This category of risk factors is not exclusive to just family members, but people in the orbit of family members as well.

The final and most far reaching risk factor to proper development is poverty.  “Poverty itself, and the chronic and episodic crises associated with it, may affect parenting, as do community risks such as neighborhoods with high crime rates. With early onset conduct disorder, dysfunction starts early and lasts long, with related delinquency and emotional and behavioral problems reaching into adulthood (Risk, n.d.).” Like trauma, neglect and substance abuse, these risk factors are experienced over a long period of time and follow a pattern. 
Much like the other two domain with their related risk factors, there are protective factors as well.  Throughout my research, a lot of similarities were found between risk factors and protective factors that could be applied to one domain, or all three.  The more important or most common factors were selected for each domain, and the psychosocial domain shared the same top three factors as the cognitive domain; environment, personal characteristics of the child, and having a supportive “microsystem” in the Bronfenbrenner sense. 

These factors are similar in title but can be applied to the different domains in dissimilar ways.  For example, with the psychosocial domain, poverty could lead to drug abuse and neglect in a family, that can cause a child to be left alone with no adult to model acceptable behavior, or worse yet, they think the actions of someone in the family addicted to drugs is normal, so they model themselves in that way.  While cognitive development shares the risk factors with the psychosocial domain, the can be hazardous in different ways. 

Another example, the risk poverty put development in for the cognitive domain is a poor school district, that is understaffed and underfunded, therefore teaches a different curriculum to its students.  “Specifically, we find that high quality teachers, measured by the interaction of the average years of teacher experience and the percentage of teachers with advanced degrees at each school, have a significant and positive effect on student test scores. Unfortunately, both values for these teaching variables are lower in the high-poverty schools; thus, the undersupply of well-educated, experienced teachers in the high-poverty schools contributes to the achievement gap in those schools. We also find that smaller class size adjusted for the school readiness of the students does indeed contribute to increased student test scores in all schools, but the effect is larger in the high-poverty schools (Borg, n.d.).”

The same could be said for protective factors researched for this project, their applications are the same as for all the domains; the environment a child is raised in, their personal characteristics developed in those environments and the people in those environments “microsystem” all have the largest impact on the child’s development, healthy or not.
As parents, you can promote positive developmental outcomes in the psychosocial domain in many ways through recreational play.  It can be as simple as turn-taking games and games that reward attention and self-control;  music-making and rhythm games are also beneficial to younger children because it activates a different part of the brain;  Emotion charade games are also beneficial to teach children it’s okay to feel different ways and to help them understand empathy and how to deal with those emotions;  Group games of dramatic, pretend play are also enjoyable for most children, and teach children about different scenarios and how others might react to emotions.

As with the other domains, there are always actionable items that families can do to increase active play in their child and promoting healthy development in the psychosocial domain.  Research has shown that outdoor playtime is a particularly effective way to psychosocial skills in kids Promoting, n.d.).  There are many other ways to promote social development in children, but it all begins at home with family or a child’s primary caregiver.  Always show him or her affection; hug, cuddle, read, and talk with them throughout the day.  Encourage the child to try new things, help them see what they are capable of while letting your child know that you are pleased with their accomplishments. 

Give the child opportunities to play with other children their age to help them explore their world and get to know the people in it. An adult in any caregiving role should model kind and generous behaviors when interacting with other adults and children, thereby setting a socially acceptable and desired example.  Through all the research completed on the psychosocial developmental domain, the most impactful and influential thing a parent can do to promote healthy social development is to acknowledge the child’s feelings. “Help them talk about what they feel and how they are feeling. Comfort your child when they are upset. Hold them and speak softly and calmly (Promoting, n.d.).”  Just that little acceptance and understanding can go a long way in positive individual development for a child.

CONCLUSION
While each developmental domain researched has similar risk factors as well as protective factors, it was obvious how influential recreational activities are on a healthy physical, cognitive and psychosocial development in children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old.  Play contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth at any age, but children are most receptive between the ages of 3 and 8 years old.  Active pursuits such as play foster healthy habits in children such as empathy, fairness, and building, maintaining friendships can all be acquired through recreational activities and are beneficial to a child for their entire life.  These are qualities that are of the utmost importance to children at the earliest age because they will pay dividends in their academic and individual endeavors now and throughout the rest of their lives.