Child’s Play

Robert Fettgather holds a BA in psychology from San Jose State University as well as Masters and Doctoral degrees. He works as an associate faculty at Misson College in Santa Clara, educating students in different areas of psychology and human development.

Physical and cognitive changes naturally express in the play patterns of young children. Your own memories of play during this period will inform your review of this phenomenon. Most striking are the impressive gains the child makes in gross motor skills, that is, movements that use and develop the large muscles. By age 5 or 6, children are running, jumping and hopping. They are also galloping, climbing, skipping and playing ball. Besides the requisite physical skills, play also embraces the child’s cognitive ability to imagine which fosters creativity and even problem solving.

Fine motor skills, movements that develop the small muscles of the hands, also improve in these years, though they are still challenging. Watch a young child use a crayon or a pencil: using the whole body (motor overflow) — the tongue is moving and the whole arm and back are sometimnes involved in the writing or drawing motion! Children’s drawings reflect these evolving abilities and can give clues about the child’s emotions and personality.