The natural tendency of many modern-day parents is to condition their child’s mind by repetitively discouraging outdoor activities or sports. This is to some extent due to the competitive nature of any career choice of today. The parents tend to extrapolate their own professional experiences on the child and wish them to excel in academics to avoid similar situations in their forthcoming future. Also, today’s lifestyle and extensive encroachment of technology also play a significant part in this ‘indoor’ mentality of parents. They find it much easier to engage their child with a video game or mobile device rather than encourage them to go out and play. Lack of proper playgrounds or safe, open spaces also contributes towards parents opting for the safety of home for their children.
This kind of forcible focus on the parent’s part may lead to an unwholesome development of the child. While they may become good in academics, physical activity will only help to enhance mental acumen in many ways as described below.
Psychological Fitness
Playing outdoors obviously helps with physical fitness; it also contributes to the mental well-being of the child. The academic workload makes the student feel stressed and anxious; spending time outdoors helps to take the mind off study temporarily and refreshes him. This, in turn, helps with the improvement in academic performance of the child.
Help with Focus
A child has to concentrate when playing any kind of outdoor game; otherwise, he is unable to enjoy the activity. This activity, in turn, helps with his general focusing and learning abilities. He or she is able to self-motivate in order to achieve a target or goal, either in personal life or education requirements.
Build Self-Confidence
Outdoor activities help with instilling confidence in the child. It develops the ability to push as hard as possible in order to become better in any endeavor. Also, the sense of belonging develops as one grows to love and excel in the chosen sports field and this helps with feeling confident in personal ability and the drive to excel.
Social Interactions
Sport is essentially a team game, where groups or individuals compete against each other. There are automatic bonding and friendship between players of the same team or with other children playing same or different games. In today’s world, this interaction is becoming more and more important as technology is allowing people to connect with each other virtually. Thus, social interactions in the playing fields or parks form the basis of friendships and character-building. Such interactions also help with learning social skills that are effective in the later life of the children.
Building Character
Sports also help with many other aspects of building a child’s character and mental growth. Team games teach them to be cooperative and thinking about the group’s success than individual gains. They also instruct them to obey rules and play fairly. The art of maintaining discipline can also be taught through sports. All these positive character traits are inculcated through sports and help the child to perform satisfactorily in academics also.
Prepares Children to be Competitive in Academics
Modern sports of any level have become increasingly competitive. Many aspirants train and focus on excelling in their chosen fields from a young age. Thus, the child is introduced to the sense of competitiveness early and learns to cope with it also. While there may be certain negative effects of over-competitiveness, with proper guidance of teachers and parents the child can learn the positive effects and face the fierce competition in the academic field also.
Practical Potentiality of Sports
Today, excelling in a particular sport can be beneficial in itself also. With the opportunity of scholarship grants by the school or university, the child can be motivated to do well in academics also. As most scholarships require a certain level of performance in studies also, parents can push their children to do better in school. Also, being good in the playfield provides an opportunity for the student to pursue higher studies in better institutions with sports scholarships.
To conclude, physical activities and sports have a positive effect on the child’s mental and physical well-being along with well-rounded character development. So, it would not be correct on the parent’s part to discourage their child from enjoying the outdoors. The best path is to provide ample opportunities to the child with parental guidance so that there they grow into a healthy, confident and educated adult.
Aalia Hasan
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