Importance of play

Psychiatrist & Author Ned Hallowell, MD, EdD, explains how play time and exercise are important in helping develop a child's brain and imagination
The Importance of Play for a Child's Brain Development
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Importance of play

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Step 2 in the cycle of excellence is play. The connected child feels safe enough to engage in play. Now by play, I mean imaginative connection. I don't just mean what you do at recess. Play is any activity which your imagination lights up. And this is really the highest activity of the human brain. So you want to introduce kids to the world in general through play, through imaginative engagement. How do you that? Ask questions. Why is the sky blue? Ask questions. How do you think the frog can jump so high? How does he get those muscles? What is the muscle? What is the - Once you get kids in the habit of asking questions and it comes naturally to them, their curiosity takes over, they become lifelong learners. What lifelong learning is all about is introducing kids to learning through play, through imagination. As opposed to the way that it's usually done which is memorize and forget. Kids become - Hate school, hate learning because they associate it with dulling down, shutting off this most important faculty of their brain. So whether you're a teacher, a parent or a coach; always engage kid's imagination and then the rest takes care of itself.

Psychiatrist & Author Ned Hallowell, MD, EdD, explains how play time and exercise are important in helping develop a child's brain and imagination

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Edward Hallowell, MD, EdD

Psychiatrist, ADHD Specialist, & Author

Edward (Ned) Hallowell, MD, EdD is a Harvard-trained Child and Adult Psychiatrist in practice in Sudbury, MA (outside Boston) and New York City. The author of 18 books, Dr. Hallowell specializes in learning differences such as ADHD and dyslexia, both of which he has himself.  He has also written extensively on general issues of parenting and living in our modern age. He lives in the Boston area with his wife of 23 years, Sue, and their three children, Lucy, Jack, and Tucker.

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