Guidance Officer News
The Importance of Play
The school holidays are just around the corner, a perfect time to slow down and enjoy spending some quality time with your family. For our children, the holidays provide time to relax and recharge after a busy term of school and provides endless opportunities to play. Play is central to child development and improves their emotional and overall wellbeing in many ways including:
Building confidence
Developing social skills; making friends, empathy, expressing emotions and conflict resolution
Boosting cognitive skills; abstract thinking, working memory and problem solving
Improves executive functioning skills
Enhancing physical wellbeing; development of fine and gross motor skills
Recent research has determined four types of free play;
Social play - when playing with others in a with a group, children develop skills in collaboration, role negotiation, conflict resolution and empathy.
Object Play such as building Lego, construction, marble runs help children to understand cause and effect and spatial reasoning.
Pretend/Imaginative Play can help to enhance creativity, express emotions and improve self-regulation skills.
Physical Play is essential for developing fine and gross motor skills, improving cardiovascular health and overall emotional wellbeing.
For further reading, please visit
Leanne Watson
Guidance Officer
Student Wellbeing
Enoggera State School - Thursday and Friday