Kids Like To Play Dirty? Don't Be Banned, Mother, This Is The Reason

Illustrations (Artem Podrez / Pexels)

JAKARTA - When you see your child likes to play with paint, glue, glitter, crayons, and paper so that the children's playground looks very messy, this can be a good sign. This is because games that look dirty and messy have an important role for children's growth and development.

Dirty play or messy play is an active play activity by exploring various materials and tools. There are many ingredients that are safe for children to use: water, paint, wax or flour toy dough, sand, pasta, rice, foam, jelly, paper, and much more. Messy play is an important provision in the early stages of a child's growth.

All five senses of children are stimulated while playing with these materials. He can feel the texture, smell, see, hear, and even taste the taste of the toy he is playing with. From all these materials, children can imitate how to make an object, such as a birthday cake out of sand, or create their own objects according to their creations. In messy play, the main focus is not producing something, but the process of playing and learning in a fun way.

Messy Play Stages

Do you remember when your child first learned to recognize solid food? The food you give your child may be squirted, spilled, or even thrown. That was the initial stage he learned to play dirty even though he didn't really understand when he did it. However, according to psychologist Nessi Purnomo, launching Parenting, Monday, January 17th, children can understand messy play when they are 3 years old. At that time, he not only played, but also learned many things. Teach messy play in stages according to age levels.

Make Your Own Toys

After the child gets to know the various ingredients in messy play, then he starts trying to create something. For example, making a necklace from flour dough or toy wax. Maybe at first the objects made are still messy and abstract in shape. However, if given an appreciation, the child will feel appreciated. He felt proud of his ability and over time his self-confidence emerged.

It is not impossible from the objects or abstract paintings that he often makes, the child will later create a great work. If he's getting tired of doodling with paint, or playing dough is no longer a fun game, invite him to try some cool experiments. Who knows one day he will become a great scientist.

Give Support

When children play messy play, you just have to accompany and supervise them during the exploration process, even if necessary, come and play with them. According to Nessi, your presence is still needed even though he seems to be busy playing alone. Enjoy time with your children because this process won't last long. After growing up, your little one may no longer be interested in playing dirty.

Invite children to clean up their toys after playing. Messy play also made him understand that sometimes things don't go the way they should and get messed up, but if they are taken care of one by one then everything will be back to normal. This is another benefit of messy play: problem solving skills.