Physical and digital play: impact on children's development

Abstract

While play seems to be such a simple thing children engage in, it is an essential part of the development of a child. There are many types of play children can engage in and looking directly at physical and digital play will help understand the negative and positive impacts of play on the development of a child. When conducting a literature review on this topic, I included key terms that were specifically focused on the types of play as well as how play positively and negatively contributes to development; I avoided topics that did not include the impact on development. I found qualitative research and secondary articles that specifically covered my topic. Understanding the importance of how different types of play can impact a child’s development will hopefully help people to be more supportive of children engaging in play. Most people see play as just a normal thing children do, but looking further into play creates an understanding that play can impact a child’s development.