What are the advantages of restoring creative interactive playfulness in kids’ lives? How do we help kids who forgot how to play be naturally reconnected to screen-free playfulness, and how does the multifaceted, integrative game concept, B SmART 'n PLAY, support these processes?

The importance of restoring children's passion and connection to the worlds of play and multi-sensory experience in the age of screens

Kids are born to play; they are born to develop through interactive experiences. When they are young, everything is new to them. They want to touch everything and use their senses to study the environment. Their minds are open to trying, absorbing, and developing in all fields.

Curiosity is part of their cognitive development. It helps them learn about their surroundings, understand the connections between objects, and build learning skills. The brain creates neural connections by repetitive exposure to new experiences. The most efficient way to shape young children's motor, social, emotional, and also cognitive development is to keep the channels of interactive, creative, and curious play strong and wide open in their lives. Today, when technology and screens are integral to daily lives, preserving children's passion for experiment-based play and multi-sensory experiences is crucial. The two-dimensional tools can not provide a child with holistic developmental support, and spending precious time on screens should not be taken for granted.

When kids ask, “What's the point of doing that?”

The constant eternal conflict between the human drive to grow and develop through action and the body's and brain's natural urge to conserve energy is also evident in children, and it doesn't work in their favor. We don’t want to see kids lose interest in being kids.

When children ask, “What's the point of doing that?” it’s often a sign that something isn’t clicking. It could mean they’re not finding the activity engaging, or they don’t see its value. When children quickly grow bored of the simple and the familiar, it can strongly imply that they forget how to enjoy and stretch the moment, which, for young children, is the most natural thing to do. Instead of being enthusiastic and immediately finding the beauty in simple things, they constantly crave new stimuli.

This behavior is often typical of children who spend hours of passive screen time, choosing it over activities that require physical and/or mental effort. In many cases, they lose the natural drive to be curious and passionate about actions that foster their overall development and support their healthy growth, such as sports activities, social interactions, imaginary play, etc.

Helping them reconnect to the most fundamental tools helps them strengthen their mental muscles, such as curiosity and willingness to explore. Interactive playtime naturally extends when they preserve their ability to be creative in the play world and not only see the potential hidden in objects to turn into games in many different ways but to immerse in the activity for extended periods of time with great interest and focus.

The benefits of maintaining a playful, creative childhood

Children who continue engaging in experiential play as they grow older retain vital life skills often developed unconsciously. Experiential play, which involves hands-on, imaginative, and interactive activities, fosters abilities such as problem-solving, creativity, resourcefulness and adaptability. These play experiences allow children to explore different roles, invent scenarios, and make decisions, all contributing to their cognitive and emotional development.

By maintaining a connection to these playful, exploratory worlds, children strengthen their capacity to initiate projects, innovate solutions, and approach challenges with a creative mindset even as they mature. These skills are crucial throughout life, as they help individuals navigate complex situations, think outside the box, and remain flexible in a rapidly changing world. These skills are developed so naturally through play that children often don’t realize how significant they are to their future growth and success.

How does the process of multifaceted game creation help connect children to screen-free play?

Continuous creative playfulness is created when children face situations that stimulate their imagination and encourage them to think in new ways. When they are free to experiment, explore, and invent, they develop a sense of ownership over the play and are driven by curiosity and interest. Play experiences that allow them to take on different roles, change the rules, or create new tools boost the desire to innovate and grow through play.

 

When children are exposed to processes that immediately capture their attention, without the need for persuasion or emotional manipulation, when they identify from the very first moment the potential of their creation to serve them in multiple enjoyable ways—ways that challenge them but, on the other hand, allow them to experience success even in areas previously marked as out of scope for them—their dedication to the activity rises to a higher level.

The magic happens when kids who are used to saying NO to arts and crafts or physical activity and feel less connected to the world of play eagerly engage with the process. The spark in children's eyes ignites as new play ideas are discovered through creation, movement, imaginative play, and social interaction. The value of their creations soars in their minds.

This is part of the rationale behind the multifaceted game concept, B SmART ‘n PLAY, that has consistently and systematically proven the strategy's effectiveness over the past eight years through extensive work with thousands of children aged 4-10.

The secret lies in the infinite versatility that emerges throughout the creation process and playtime, in the selection of elements that simultaneously capture the hearts of many children, and in helping each child to find their place to shine along the process in each of the fronts.

This process echoes the endless possibilities of screen time, but in this case, it unfolds in real life. It awakens during the creation stage, allowing each child to enter the world of game creation and play through content that naturally resonates with them most.

Children gain something invaluable when they embrace the experience rather than focus solely on the result. They become fully engaged in the process, driven by curiosity and joy. Their imaginations venture into uncharted territories, bringing to life ideas that never had the opportunity to emerge before. It helps them reach new realms of thinking and behavior that can only emerge through liberation from existing patterns. They connect to their inner selves, to the channels of potential that exist in them, and they connect to their surroundings.

This strategy supports screen time reduction by freeing children from previous thinking and behavior patterns and helping them break away from avoidance. For instance, when kids reopen to the opportunity to play ball games after experiencing past failures, they expand their experiential and developmental interests outside of screens.

In summary, it is more than possible to help children at any age push their play boundaries and fall in love again with the interactive screen-free play that supports their holistic development. By encouraging them to think beyond what their eyes see, integrating multiple fields that shape development, and adapting materials for new play purposes, there's no limit to the creative potential that can burst from them.