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Playing? That’s FUNdamental

Games and fantasy are part of the human nature; they are fundamental for children to grow up, and in the adulthood, though changing forms and means, the are necessary pauses for mind and body.

Author: Lia Contesso
Date: May 13, 2010 - 10:53:43 AM

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Stimulating fantasy through games is a way for children to discover and form their personality: the creation of a fictitious world created by themselves is a mean to acquire knowledge, skills and capabilities, that rises through the imitation of the adults’ behaviours, and is also fundamental for socialization. Children, in fact, use the game to come into contact among them: the question “do you want to play with me?”, in fact, is the primary purpose of every game; once this is fulfilled, they arrive to the purpose of the game itself, that will bring the child to live new experiences.

Nowadays the children’s fantasy is continually stimulated: cartoons, online games of every kind, and they grow up more and more rapidly, with more and more exigent tastes. While for “traditional” games a ball or a piece of cloth were sufficient, nowadays fantasy and tastes are more and more sophisticated; this means, from one side, that children have more knowledge in more fields (when they are 10 they already are masters with computers and DVDs...), from the other side this means that amuse them is more and more difficult.

Rediscovering the “poor” games may bring to a simplification that could reveal itself to be positive: it too many things are needed to get amused, it becomes difficult. On the contrary, discovering again the pleasure of a simple game may help to reach in a more simple way another (fundamental) purpose of the games: having fun.

Of course, times change, as well as the games keep up with the times: once children played running one after the other in the streets or in the fields, but now running in the street is unthinkable and fields are not as common as they were...now, mostly in the cities, people stay more in their homes, few have a garden and games adapt to the new spaces and times: there are children who play with the computer, alone or with their schoolmates, others who play with technological games full of lights, buttons and mobile parts. Or maybe with a simple furry teddy bear...the important thing is that the game should also be used to create a union with other children, and that is stays a game: it’s always fundamental to recognize the difference between game and reality, and to know that they are in two different and separated dimensions.

Games for boys and those for girls have always been completely different, excepting some games that can make the two factions merge making them play together – the most classical ones, like blind man’s buff – ; normally, though, boys play among them with constructions, cars or ball, while the games for girls are dolls, “ladies” and others. This difference also remains stressed in the online games proposed by the sites: cooking and makeup games for girls, football and racing games for boys. The same can be said for the games proposed to adults, that often stay attached to the most traditional videogames and choose them for their pauses on the computer.

Games, in the end, are important: no doubts on this. They are important for children to grow up, to stimulate fantasy, to learn new things, to make new experiences and to come into contact with other children; and it’s important for adults to get diverted, to stay together, in short, to have fun. Online or in the real world.

  This article was written by Lia Contesso, with support from giochi online bambini. For any information please visit giochi da scaricare, or visit gioco online gratis.

View all articles by Lia Contesso

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