How Do Children Develop Life Skills Through Sports?
Sports bring several physical, psychological, emotional and social benefits to children. Aside from the physical exercise, children also benefit by learning how to cooperate and work in a team, make new friends, build discipline and develop a positive attitude especially despite losing.
Sports and life skills
Somehow, getting into sports is similar to getting into business or building a career. For example, both in sports and in our jobs we have to learn several essential skills and understand a wide variety of rules for us to play or work properly. We’re also expected to work in a team and cooperate with other people if we want to achieve a common goal.
When children get into sports, it’s like they’re now preparing for the real world. At an early age, they learn how to develop skills and practice discipline. They also start to understand that there are rules to follow so that everyone is on the same page and to help things and people become more organised.
Developing patience and building resilience
Sports also expose children to the concept of winning and losing. As a result, they can start to learn how to deal with disappointment and understand that many things require patience, practice and discipline.
Also, children start to learn that losing is somehow painful and disappointing. But if they can deal with the emotion properly, they will start to become resilient. Next time, they can easily bounce back after a loss and even become stronger in the next game. At an early age they will also learn that the focus should always be on having fun and giving their best in every game.
Because of the benefits of sports to early childhood development, we’ve included sports education in our curriculum here at Little Voyagers Early Learning Centre. This way, children will have more fun and start to learn about different sports that might interest them. This is also an amazing way for them to start learning how to work in a team, feel confident and cooperate with other children.