We interview Memoryteca: "play is a vital need for child development"

Every day is important to me when it comes to childhood. But on November 20, the United Nations reminds us that we have to fight and ensure that we offer an education and a dignified life to the little ones. One of the most basic rights that all children should have, yes or yes, is play. To vindicate the importance of play in childhood we have today the Memoryteca group: specialists in neuroeducational games and cognitive stimulation.

Mothers Today: Is playing essential for the integral development of children?

Memoryteca Group: Playing is much more than an activity, it is a vital and indispensable necessity for the integral development of the child. There are numerous studies that have analyzed the contributions of play in early childhood and conclude that early and varied play contributes positively to all aspects of growth, enhancing psychomotor, intellectual, social and affective-emotional development.

MH: Do you think that children's right to play is being affected by the rhythm of society?

GM: In general, yes, our society has lived for a long time installed in permanent stress, a hyper-connected and hyperactive society, which perhaps excessively burden children with extracurricular activities and that demands excessive competitiveness from them if we also add an excess of duties. All this plays an important role and is detrimental to the natural right to enjoy free time to play. Fortunately, more and more opinions are emerging that warn about the need to reflect on the need for the right to play of children.

MH: Some educational centers sin to give an excessive importance to memorization. Can you actively learn concepts through play?

GM: Of course we do, especially if we play manipulative games. Our team of professionals tests and analyzes a large number of experiences with games in educational centers and our experience and that which we also receive from the education professionals with whom we work and collaborate shows us that manipulative work is a great facilitator of learning. .

The explanation for this learning has its logic. By using the game as a vehicle for learning, it offers them a direct and manipulative contact to experience directly. We know that the game awakens sensations and emotions that consolidate learning and consequently we always tend to remember better what has an emotional implication.

MH: What skills and abilities can be fostered through play?

GM: Play is important because it optimizes the functioning of the brain by enhancing the processes involved in learning: attention, memory, constructive skills, creativity and reasoning. Playing at an early age provides motivation, helps develop critical thinking, to think about problem solving, encourages curiosity, allows active learning, enhances creativity and imagination by stimulating the ability to improvise and solve challenges creatively. It is also a fantastic means to promote social skills by having to interact with playmates working on emotional education, communication, dialogue, self-control and tolerance of frustration.

MH: Christmas is coming, better revision homework or neuroeducational games that stimulate learning?

 GM: If we are given a choice, obviously we opt for the games, but it is our opinion, always respecting the various options and combinations that may exist for each specific case. At Memoryteca we think that games perfectly allow combine learning with fun and more if we take into account that the Christmas holidays are short and allow a break from the obligations and duties of the previous quarter. Playing can also learn and much more than we can imagine, it is only about knowing how to choose the right games.

Play is our brain's preferred way of learning. The innate brain mechanisms in children allow them, even at a few months of age, to learn by playing. It is logical that combining math or language learning with specially chosen games is something that motivates and excites students.

MH: What advantages does free play have over neuroeducational games and vice versa?

GM: We do not believe that either of the two has advantages over the other, since both are complementary and necessary.

MH: On an emotional and personal level, what benefits can a child have from playing?

GM: Many, including the use of certain games, will develop their cognitive and emotional capacities without stress, through play, because we know that the game provides pleasure and satisfaction, favors the release of tension and allows express fluently, feelings and emotions. It also increases their autonomy, the ability to solve problems, their self-esteem and the improvement of interpersonal relationships by sharing the experience of the game.

MH: There are schools that are betting on game-based learning and are obtaining excellent results, what do you think this is due to?

GM: The truth is that the excellent results of the schools that are committed to game-based learning, we know and live very closely since we collaborate and work with many of them, for us it was a predictable result since the introduction of game programs in schools, it provides an ideal setting, motivates children, captures their attention, provides them with a pleasant environment, which amuses them and is motivating for them, since they learn in a fun and different way, they try, explore and assume normally mistakes because they allow them to improve and progress and that constitutes a great satisfaction for them.

Starting from one of our favorite phrases "Play is the preferred way of our brain to learn" the innate brain mechanisms in children allow them, even at a few months of age, to learn by playing, it is logical that combining the learning of mathematics or Language with games specially chosen to consolidate and practice a certain learning is something that motivates and excites students, since when children play their brain goes into “learning mode”, which allows them to enjoy while they learn.

We know that when children play they release more dopamine, dopamine is the brain's reward and makes learning circuits are activated. Therefore, any learning that is carried out through play will generate more powerful and permanent brain connections that will help its consolidation.

MH: Education in values ​​through games, do you think it is possible?

GM: Obviously, based on everything that we have commented previously, the game is the preferred way of learning from our brain, and if a certain game is based on educating in values. In the market there are specific games to educate in values, even cooperative games, we have the perfect means to educate children in values, since that message that we will try to convey to them will be consolidated in a much more effective way.

MH: Children are happy when they play. Is it easier to learn in a fun and enjoyable way?

GM: Always, and we will explain it with a very basic example. No father or mother teaches their children to speak with books whose content are rules of syntax and grammar, they do so naturally, sharing experiences, emotions, speaking directly with their children, singing songs, reading stories and playing with them, for This theory and practice teach us that it is much easier to learn in a natural, fun and enjoyable way.

MH: How important are parents in children's play?

GM: We suggest that all parents who read this interview take a test:

One day they sit on the floor at home with an open game in front of them, without saying anything to their children, waiting… and to observe their children's reaction. We have tried it on many occasions and the same scene is always repeated, the children without saying anything will interpret that their parents are tacitly inviting them to play, that they look at their faces of joy and satisfaction and they will observe the children as if by magic They will proceed to sit on the floor in front of them and begin without a word to interact and play with them. That is the clear and direct sign of the importance that children place in interpreting that their parents are giving them time to play with them. That is actually what all children want their parents, who give them a part of their time, to feel loved, valued and safe in their attempt to learn and discover the world while playing and more if it comes to doing it with their parents .

In Memoryteca we have verified that parents directly influence much more than they imagine in the development of their children when they are involved in their games, and for this reason we have created a new project aimed at families, the “Toolbox Memoryteca Kids”, a special method for families that contains a special selection of neuroeducation games accompanied by a method created by our team of Memoryteca professionals. The “Toolbox Memoryteca Kids” we will present them shortly on our website for this coming Christmas.

This new and original project, unique in the world, is a method to stimulate the cognitive functions of children through a series of games selected and appropriate for ages, specifically for 3, 4 and 5 years. This project is our personal and professional commitment to offer parents extraordinary material, a gift of time for their children that serves to reinforce their affective bonds by playing in a special way and at the same time offering their children a fun neurolearning that it will multiply your neural connections. At Memoryteca we work to provoke unusual experiences in children and thus be able to discover unexpected treasures in them.

MH: You don't see so many children playing in parks and squares anymore. What reasons could explain this?

GM: We mentioned it before, stress, lack of time, obsession and social pressure for having our sons and daughters permanently busy with extracurricular activities added to the large amount of homework that in some cases they have outside of school hours make the Lack of time to dedicate to them prevents them from enjoying parks and squares, especially if they live in large cities.

MH: Can you manage your emotions through games?

GM: Yes, the game offers enormous possibilities to promote cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is necessary to solve problems and manage emotions since it is the ability that allows us to change from one idea to another and tolerate changes.

MH: "I have not had time to play because I have had many duties." What do you think of that phrase?

GM:Well, we are very sad to hear this phrase since children perceive the world through emotions, play and affection. If we are not able to facilitate you, the child's development may not reach its fullness.

MH: And finally, do you think that adults play down the importance of children's playtime?

GM: Well, surely on many occasions it is like that, although not always by luck. If we settle into this idea, downplaying playtime can affect more than we imagine in the formation and emotional development of children.

I hope you enjoyed the special Children's Day interview! Eva and Pasqual, co-founders of Memoryteca realized that the same types of games that had benefited their children so much could be played with other children with or without learning difficulties and they bet on it. And they bet on it because gambling, as I said before, should be a basic right yes or yes in childhood.