I was reading Free to Learn by Peter Gray recently, specifically the chapter about how play impacts learning, and it’s so fascinating to me that the evidence of this is so clear in daily life.
The very next morning, I was playing ‘restaurants’ with my daughter and she was using a bunch of random objects to represent food (creative thinking unlocked). When she was serving the beans (pom poms) she used tongs to transfer them to my plate (cardboard box lid) one by one.
What’s interesting about this is that, if the goal were to serve up the beans and be done with it, she could have easily tipped them out of the container onto the plate and hand them over.
As logical adults, this would be the most efficient way of achieving said goal. However, she meticulously selected each bean and placed them on the plate.
Why would she take the long, complicated and illogical route to complete this task?
As humans we are wired to achieve a goal in the most systematic way possible. If we need to complete a task, we will search for the simplest, easiest and fastest way to do it, UNLESS we are immersed in play.
If my daughter’s goal was to simply hand the beans over, she would have done that, however her actions indicated that she was in a state of relaxed playfulness and that the purpose of this play, the GOAL, was actually the action of using the tongs to transfer objects.
This playful state of mind is why toddlers will fill and refill and refill cups of water and then dump them out again. Their purpose is not the end goal of getting a cup of water to drink, it’s to play at pouring and filling containers. That is the purpose of the action and therefore it becomes playful, AND it’s the route to learning new skills.
You may have noticed this in your own children and might remember moments when they’ve repeated an action over and over, seemingly (and possibly irritatingly) for no real purpose. What Peter Gray says is that this repetition IS the purpose.
Many adults overlook these purposeful actions, and unknowingly step in and “help” the child to fulfil the goal. When we step back and observe, we notice the true purpose of our child’s playful actions and therefore, we can more consciously leave them to get on with it. This playfulness is how children build skills and learn, and, as parents and caregivers, we should consciously let them.
When did you last notice your child do this? When was the last time you tinkered or tried something new just for the fun of it?
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