Playtime: An Essential Element in Shaping Children's Future - Essay Sample

Introduction

Play among children is a very critical component in the determination of the future lives of children. Parents being the immediate role models to their kids need to ensure that their children get plenty of time engaging in active play. In most cases, cultures have abused the freedom mandated for playtime and are shuttled with several related activities. The current generation aims at encouraging nonviolent activities while at the same time there are concerns about children getting involved in aggressive play (Westhuizen & Solms, 2015). As a result, children have complained about being forced to pretend to be what society expects from them. Rough and tumble play and dominance hierarchies, children should be granted adequate space to express their inner motives that are regarded as special in helping to reap proper development and maturation. Who knew that play could be one of the most important reasons in helping children realize their peaceful tomorrow?

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The adaptive value of rough and tumble play dictates the levels of hormone imbalance that later determine suffering levels among sons who tend to be an adrenaline-fueled (Westhuizen & Solms, 2015). When fathers are less dominant during the free play with their sons, sons tend to be more physically aggressive. The outcome of videotaped children playing with their fathers indicated that there is a connection between physical aggression and rough and tumble play. The aggression is determined by the degree of the father’s dominance during playtime.

Cite Examples of How Language Awareness Fosters School-Age Children’s Language Progress

Language awareness and verbal communication are essential factors that assume a noteworthy role in the development of children’s brains. During all the development stages, among children, the process of language acquisition is considered to among the pivotal stages of development. Language awareness help in developing the memory of children during interaction enabling children to get involved in several activities that is learning-oriented. Additionally, daily reading, writing, and language-based play help elementary school children to enhance their listening skills as well as speaking skills while avoiding emotional and social distractions.

The onset of the school period among children, spoken language is an automatic tool that facilitates awareness and social interaction helping them acquire skills that are vital in their psychosocial development. More advanced language competencies and reading skills are in later schooling are linked to early pre-literacy activities and language skills (Bjorklund & Ellis, 2014). When children gain the proper skills, they become more courageous and proficient and interact better with their partners. Children develop more interest in educational matters as they develop an interest in understanding their surrounding much better. Poor listening and speaking skills during early childhood development are likely to suffer from language impairment that may incur additional psychosocial difficulties.

How Does the Level Of Self-Esteem Change in Middle Childhood, and What Accounts For These Changes?

Though it is assumed that self-esteem develops right from childhood into adulthood, little is known about what it takes for the changes to be realized especially among populations of young people. Research conducted in Germany and the Netherlands, among children of up to three years, revealed that self-esteem was stable across all the groups. Finer details proved males in the Netherlands recorded slightly higher self-esteem compared to males in Germany. The slight difference was accustomed to the varying social support in developing self-esteem in children (Chung & Hutteman, 2017). Individuals with better family and peer social support recorded higher levels of self-esteem. It was therefore concluded that social support and demographic factors are key predictors of self-esteem during early and middle childhood development.

The changes in self-esteem during middle childhood may also be as a result of changing schools, house, or country. Parents are expected to give total care and love to their children when they are exposed to such scenarios. Additionally, the changes may be accounted for the relevant attitude and behaviors of the parents. For proper self-understanding and during the middle age, parents are required to regulate their interactions with the young ones.

How Does Emotional Self-regulation Improve in Middle Childhood? What Implications Do These Changes Have for Children’s Self-Esteem?

During middle childhood, children may move past the usual categorization to more complex behavioral and social advancements. Self-concept development relies much on the free world as the level training ground for moral, social, and emotional development. Improvements in a child’s emotional self-regulation depend greatly on the parent (Thomson, Oberle, & Gadermann, 2018). The parent needs to match the emotional tone of the child, giving them free time, enabling them to play alone as well as giving them empathy when they need it the most. Emotional self-regulation can also improve when the caretaker gets down to the child’s level making them feel safer doing away with the feeling of being overwhelmed.

The changes imply that children at middle childhood stages start to reduce the dependence on parents and other caregivers and gain more independence that helps them gain new skills and make friends at school. Children develop self-love and they want to be recognized for the achievements they make (Whitebread, 2020). This creates a sense of being competent. The independences gained at this stage prepare children challenges that are likely to come their way during the secondary stages of development or adolescence.

References

Bjorklund, D. F., & Ellis, B. J. (2014). Children, childhood, and development in evolutionary perspective. Developmental ReviewVolume 34, Issue 3, 225-264.

Chung, J. M., & Hutteman, R. (2017). High, low, and in between: Self-esteem development from middle childhood to young adulthood. Journal of Research in PersonalityVolume 70, 122-133.

Thomson, K. C., Oberle, E., & Gadermann, A. M. (2018). Measuring social-emotional development in middle childhood: The Middle Years Development Instrument. Journal of Applied Developmental PsychologyVolume 55, 107-118.

Westhuizen, D. v., & Solms, M. (2015). Social dominance and the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales. Consciousness and CognitionVolume 33, 90-111.

Whitebread, D. (2020). Self-regulation Processes in Early Childhood. Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development (Second Edition), 107-115.