What is the Role of Play in Childhood Development and Education

Abstract

This study attempts to understanding the process of children's acquisition of some basic such a educational and cultural as well as futures social participation, through these experiences of play. We believe that the different games that the Azorean people played throughout their childhood may have been important, in establishing a true relationship, with their participation in cultural, sports, arts and recreation organizations. Data was collected through a questionnaire that was sent to several people from all Azores islands who had some type of institutional adhesion (cultural, sports, arts and recreational) (N=880). The data, both qualitative and quantitative, were input into a SPSS 15.0 base of Windows and in order to process this information descriptive, comparative and correlative statistics was used. The results state that there is a generally held belief amongst that who is involved in recreational organizations concerning the important role that playing and children's games have in the development and education of children and young people. There are some similarities between the childhood play best remembered in the traditional context and these memories are consistent with the great relevance of the activities that promote in their socio-emotional development and the development of autonomy childhood games are extremely important facts in people's upbringing and development both as an individual person and as a member of society.