Why play games with children?
Why play games with children?
An infant is born and as Wordsworth sees, is still enveloped in ‘heavenly’ forces. In the journey through childhood, each young person encounters and passes through what may be called ‘thresholds’. Games a subtly about those thresholds; about how children experience them and how we, their helpers, can identify and give them expression.
The long journey to reveal or discover ourselves and our life’s tasks is our life story; we can look upon games as the spaces or punctuation in this story, that give the text meaning. Some children experience isolation and ridicule in games. Self-esteem is badly affected and often has lasting negative effects in other areas of life. The games we play need to value all players regardless of their varying degrees of physical and emotional ability. An enjoyable and satisfying role can be found for all those who play. In many games, can gently involve those who are introverted, focus the unfocused, ease over-dominance or help move stubborn children.
The Journey
We often say that children ‘grow up’ – as indeed they do. What would you think, though, if you were to hear that children also ‘grow down’ and ‘grow in’? Children grow through games. They first learn as infants about the world around them, and at times their gaze seems to look far beyond the new physical environment that they have come into. They exist partly in the periphery. Then as the years go by, they spatially come closer’ to themselves. They play finger games, clapping games, skipping, romping and running games. They grow more skillful as they learn about space and how to move in it; the games become more demanding, involving greater social complexity and negotiation. The journey from the young child playing finger games to the teenager playing basketball, is a process of coming ‘in’ and ‘down’, of growing heavier within the body.
A dynamic exists between growing ‘up’ and ‘down’; and also between ‘growing in’ to oneself and ‘growing out’ into the world. Such a view is of special interest to the teacher or therapist; it increases our ability to perceive when a child has become ‘stuck’ in a particular stage, and to help her overcome the obstruction gently by getting involved in certain games and activities.
Time and again I have witnessed difficult emotional and behavioral problems eased when the right activity is offered and taken up by the child. Suspicious or guarded reactions that may have existed in conversation, begin to fade when a particular game is introduced. The barriers to healing then also begin to fall away.
An extract from Games Children Play II published by Hawthorn Press. This article is by Kim John Payne from Simplicity Parenting.