Playing is, in a sense, every child's main job
Contribution from: Johanna Schubert, psychotherapist who works, among other things, in the educational and family counseling center / therapy Johna Schubert
The game basically combines three functions:
1. Personality development of a child
2. Breeding ground for the subsequent acquisition of necessary academic and professional skills
3. Combining play and school ability
Why do children play?
Everything that children see, hear, feel, hold and understand quickly becomes a game. Whether it's drawing patterns on the mashed potatoes, playing self-entertainment while getting dressed, making faces while washing in the mirror, picking up and throwing a stone or climbing a tree: a play action quickly emerges. It is the “active engagement” of children with their entire environment.
" Children want to discover their environment, understand it, get closer to its laws and become familiar with unknown things ."
For children there are - thank God - no routine, no habits, no behavioral patterns. It is their world of constant encounters with new things and with possibilities for action, which in turn the children perceive as a completely natural motivation/provocation for action. According to the motto: "The unknown must be known, the new awaits a personal discovery, the attractive needs to be experienced!"
How often do children actually play?
So it's not surprising when game researchers assume that children (have to!) play around 15,000 hours up to the age of six. That's about -8 hours per day! This is where the developmental psychological learning sequence in children comes into play.