Physical education has an educational impact on all children, changes can be seen in motor skills development, performance and educational potential. Physical education is fundamental to the early development of children, they learn skills during play, PE and Sports they wouldn’t learn within a classroom environment.
They learn the importance of key values such as –
- Honesty
- Teamwork
- Fair play
- Respect for themselves and others
- Adhering to rules
- Winning and losing
PE develops the connection between the nerve cells and the brain. These connections develop a child’s fine and gross motor skills, problem solving, creativity, language, personal awareness and social skills.
PE will help children to understand why physical activity is important for a healthy life, it will also ensure that children are using their muscles, joints, heart and lungs to develop healthily. In turn should prevent the children from developing conditions such as Heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and other chronic health conditions.
Motor skills are developed as soon as the child is born and the only way that they will develop these is by physically doing something. Children’s gross motor skills are developed very quickly within sports, running, skipping, kicking a ball etc.
Children’s social skills will develop through physical activity, the children will get to work in a variety of different groups, with children they do not normally work with and with children of different abilities to them. This will allow the child to share their skills with others, help others or even introduce competition to improve.
When playing Sport children need to understand the rules of the game and obey these to be able to reach the goal they are trying to achieve. This gets the children adhering to rules but in a fun way, giving the children a meaning to what they are physically doing.
