A Research Related to the Importance of Play in Early Childhood

In this research the role and importance of play in early childhood development were pointed. For the last decades, play has been widely seen as an extremely important activity in developed countries’ educational systems. Many researchers suggest that play is the best way in terms of knowing and examining a child better. Play-based education in which there are purposeful and well-planned activities aiming at facilitating physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of growing nations is complementary and inseparable from the general education. Children learn behaviors such as deciding, cooperating, arranging, organizing, sharing, respecting others’ rights and helping through play time. Through play a child can practice, assess and evaluate the skills which he/she will need in his/her adulthood. Researches show that play has positive effects on children’s’ cognitive, emotional and psychomotor skills. It is possible to categorize play into different groups but play mainly helps children to adopt the real world and satisfy their psychological and physical needs. In this research the play in the early childhood was discussed and it was surveyed that how play affect early childhood overall (cognitive, social, psychomotor and emotional) development.