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Implications of experiences in team play for social and intellectual development during middle school.
Play activities involve the child’s total self and the use of all forms of energy. It has been proved to be the single most important provider of social and intellectual development in middle school children, thus making it as important as food. Through play, a child can receive reliefs and balances in their day to day activities.
Children do not know everything through directions but experiences and mainly through their actions. This means that the environment they grow in determines their social behavior. Through team play, the children can develop the ability to empathize. This involves putting oneself in another’s shoe, which makes the child develop a sensibility to others’ emotions, thus making them competent in sustaining social relations. Children equally learn to share as grabbing things to oneself makes them unacceptable in the team play. Healthy competition too, is developed in middle school during team play. Children compete towards arbitrary goals; they come to understand that there will always be a winner and a loser. The child, therefore, becomes aware that he or she can either win or lose. The child also develops knowledge of sex roles during team play. They acquire the roles to commensurate with the social gender and norms; this includes learning rules, imitations, and compliance.
The child also develops the ability to make eye contact in communication to convey or perceive information.
On the other hand, intellectual development involves having the power understanding and having the capacity for the higher forms of knowledge or thought. Children tend to play to a level of their intellectual development. They acquire knowledge and form ideas about the world around them as they play. Team play enables children to learn problem-solving skills. As they play, they come across given problems that they have to solve first to proceed with the play, thus problem-solving skills. Team play also provokes thoughts, for instance, when a child plays pretend and demonstrates the role of another. For example, pretending to be a teacher. This involves a lot of imagination and memory, thus promoting thinking capacity. Children are also able to make observations. Children learn well through observing; they can see and analyze activities. This enables them to acquire new skills, thus become intellects.
Play helps children to move from the pre-logical to the logical stage. For instance, when playing with clay, the child gets an opportunity to discover that molding can change shape, and mass conservation play, therefore, assists children in moving from pre-logical to logical thinking stage.
In conclusion, social development and intellectual development are critical aspects of a child’s growth and parents; thus, guardians are encouraged to ensure that their children get to engage in team play. Researchers argue that play gives a child the reason for existence and also gives assurance of immortality