Importance of play in the speech and language therapy Assignment

Importance of play in the speech and language therapy - Assignment Example In my opinion, the members of administration team simply do not understand the importance of play in the children’s development and I believe such actions will highly affect our department. Playing is one of the activities that young children often spend the better part of their time doing during the day and it is therefore important to appreciate the significance and impact of playing on the learning and development of children (Pellegrini, 278). First and foremost children often use play to experiment and explore new things as well as use words to express their thoughts and ideas during play. As children grow and become more sophisticated in their play skills, their language development may equally advance. Children use language during play to solve problems and to communicate their desires. During play, children are normally provided with opportunities for social interaction with their peers and therefore learn to express and control their emotions using language. Speech an d language learning is an ongoing process that takes place all day long particularly during the children’s everyday activities such as playing. During such activities, children usually significantly enhance their communication and language skills in a very indirect way. Additionally play materials that allow children with language problems to play imitative and repetitive games may also them to acquire important skills such as those of listening and attention which are necessary for their speech and language development. According to many speech and language experts, play is one of the most effective and natural ways of encouraging the development of speech and language skills in children. This is particularly because small children usually learn many skills such as listening, attention, sharing, building sentences and imagination through play. Another important reason why it is critically for the hospital administration not to affect any budget cut on the play materials in m y department is that play helps the children to develop their concentration ability. For example playing children not only focus on objects and people but they also listen and learn a lot of new names and words and this is necessary for their communication development. Apart from speech and language development, playing also help children to learn about cultural expectations and norms, discover the world around them and learn how to negotiate their ways in their surroundings. Play also support development and learning of children in a number of ways. Recent research suggests that sufficient play not only enhances growth and enrichment of children but their active participation also facilitates control and mastery leading to feelings of self efficacy and competence. On the other hand, play also encourages children to take turns and this is also important because individuals often take turns to speak and listen during normal conversations. Play enhances confidence in children while ex pressing themselves and through this the child develops the art of; listening and attention, naming, building sentences and understanding. In order to learn a language, children need both to hear and see signs. This is why most of the play materials designed for children are usually labeled and described to enable them to make connection between the objects and the words and eventually learn to use such words. Children need very many playing materials and the proposed budget cuts may potentially affect their learning abilities. Right from birth babies should get sufficient playing materials such as dolls,