Comparison of Play Activities Today and 30 Years Ago in Turkey
The purpose of this article is to determine children’s games played in the past, compare them with today’s children’s games and explain their similar and different ways. Generally, adults think that child games as activities which are enjoyable, help children have fun, and which have no goals. However, the game is an important fact in a child’s life and it is a significant task of the child. Children games and toys are an important part of childhood. But as a result of the technological developments games, which are very important in a child’s life, have changed in terms of their types, the places to play, the number of children to play the game and equipment or materials required. Children’s games played on the streets were replaced by computer games. These games cause which have no warmth, children make unattractive, incompetent, physically in terms of in motion and far from socializing.
On the other hand, children try to both understand and comprehend the world through games. During the game, they find the chance to express their feelings of resentment, happiness, sadness, anxiety, and joy. In this way, while children feel themselves emotionally better and reinforce their role in social relations more easily they also improve and reinforce any information by repeating tirelessly through the play process. Also, children play on different topics throughout the game because it satisfies their interests and requirements. Children who have problems in communicating and having reactions are accessible through play games. At the same time, the game is an area of freedom offered to the child and it contains the characteristics develop and abilities development. Playing games, especially children volunteering is an action that they take part in physical, cognitive, emotional, social and language development. Thanks to playing games, children learn effective learning by experiencing information.
Firstly, traditional games provide physical development and then cognitive development. Even the fighting is a factor affecting children’s development because the fighting provides a child’s language, emotional, social developments. In addition, group games are more than important individual games because group games provide socializing with other children. If a child is not social, he/she can have some problems like low problem-solving ability, feeling alone, low language development and communication skills with others. The traditional game has a low cost because it includes creativity activities. Today’s children’s games cause obesity and asocial. Lastly, teachers should lead a play that doesn’t require so much energy and later should lead a play that requires to consume energy. For example, they can play ortada sıçan which is an energetic and then beş taş which is not an energetic one.
Name of the game: Kutu Kutu Pense
This game is played with a large number of children holding hands. Everybody sing while turning in that circle. In the turning back, part all the children’s names are called in order, and the children who have returned continue to return in reverse. It is outdoor activities. The game provides physical development especially muscle, hand, and arm. In addition, thanks to this game, children can improve language development because it includes the song and they sing the song again and again. During the play game, children develop their memory because they tell friends names and maybe if a new child participates in the game, they can meet new friends. Thanks to the action, children can make new friends.
Name of the game: Beş Taş
Beş taş game is a children’s game played with at least two people and five small stones. After throwing the stones on the floor, the player must throw one of them into the air and then collect one or more of the stones on the ground and carry them again. If the stone thrown into the air falls to the ground, the game line passes to other players. The stones are collected one by one, then in groups of two, three and four. The game does not consume energy too much and it is indoor activities. The play developments fine motor skills, hand-eye contact, and attention. Thanks to this game, the grandmother and grandfather can teach their descendant for socializing.
Name of the game: Aç Kapıyı Bezirgan Başı
It is played with at least 10 children. Two children are choosen among them. These two children pick nicknmes such as fruit animal or flower name fir themselves. These two children stand face to face holding hands together and lift their armps up in the air. Other kids line up in a single row and pass through the arms of their friend while singing. During their passing the kid who is left between the arms of their friends is taken a little far away from the game yard. Nicknames that are choosen at the beginning of the game are told to this kid and asked to select one them. The child that is left between the arms of his friends pick a name and goes behind the child who has choosen that name at first. The game is played until all children are finished. At last, two groups are formed behind these children. After that, a line has drown between these two groups. One group stays one side of the line, one group stays the otherside of the line. The kids who have picked nicknames stand at the front, other kids that have choosen them make a line behind them. The ones who stand at the front take a rope and try to pull each other. During this challenge the group that cross the line loses the game. This game is outdoor activities. The game cannot be ignored in terms of physical, language and cognitive development. The game is moving game because it needs to walk and lean. These activities support physical development. The child’s language development is affected positively by the game because children always are singing the song. Lastly, the game developments cognitive structure because it is a strategic game because team captains gain a strong path should be followed while pulling the rope.
In short, I think the game affects the social, psychological and physical development of children while entertaining children, and provides mutual understanding, tolerance, and respect for each other in the group. Games are that in the past the games were played as a group but now they are more individual, in the past when gaming materials were supplied by children using natural materials, most of them are manufactured toys in the present. It has also been identified that there is not enough safe open space for children to play. When these games were examined, it is understood that all of them were games played outside the house, in the garden, street or in an empty area. Additionally, it is found that the games played in Turkey in the past years were not individual games but group games, which include many children in the game. The findings indicate that the games played by children currently tend to be more individualized; hence the traditional childhood, as well as traditional games, seem to be disappearing recently.
