Social Interaction Through Structured Play Activities and Games in Early Childhood

Introduction

Games and physical activities, as a social phenomenon, bring a wide range of interpersonal experiences associated with different emotional experiences. These experiences may contribute towards participants’ personality development, depending on whether the physical activities lead to positive, negative, or ambiguous emotions (Bisquerra et al., 2005; Lavega et al., 2013).

When choosing a game or an activity, one of the first variables to consider is its goal’s nature. Some games have the goal of winning and entail that playing seeks the win. In physical education and athletic settings, these games are extremely popular. Other games have no inherent goal, and thus, playing the game is an end in itself. There are no winners or losers in these games; an adequate example is some forms of tag games, in which players simply restart every time someone is tagged. Thus, the kind of goal has the power to influence participants’ emotional experience. A further point to make is that these physical activities are not natural and naive activities, but rather cultural constructs that bear the values of the society in which they are played. Analysing and understanding the system of rules that governs traditional games implies an understanding of the social values on which they are based, as well as the emotions produced by this rule system. For example, one of the sport games’ aim is the standardization of participation rules to meet the requirements for the development of an imposed high level of performance. Traditional games present rules but these can be more easily altered, depending on the context in which they are implemented, and these rules are tied to the tradition of a society or group (Oliveira & Ribas, 2010). Structured activities are planned and intentionally directed by an educator, whereas unstructured or free play are those activities that children play on their own, such as playing without following any rules on a playground.

The aim of this chapter is to identify the importance of structured games and activities in children’s holistic development and particularly in the development of social skills. Social skills are the abilities that allow people to communicate, create healthy relationships, be able to interact with others and help in the development of character traits such as respect, responsibility, justice, and citizenship. Play fosters social interactions, cooperation, and communication skills through which social skills can develop. The chapter consists of two sections: a theoretical and a practical section. The theoretical section focuses on a variety of structured physical activities which have the potential to enhance children’s social development. Classroom rules and procedures, student-centred teaching approaches, teaching approaches and models that develop social and life skills are introduced in the practical section.