Parents should encourage their children to participate in various kinds of sports at a young age. Taking such a step helps these youngsters to enhance their motor skills and intellect over time. These children also learn many essential life skills, which can prove to be valuable to them in their adult life. This includes the importance of teamwork, honesty, perseverance, fair play, improvisation, discipline, respect for their opponents, and teammates. Moreover, these kids being to realize the necessity of playing a sport according to a set of specific rules.
Ali Ata – Can participating in sports install discipline in children and improve their social skills?
Ali Ata is an esteemed professor of English at The American University of The Middle East in Kuwait. He has many years of valuable experience under his belt in the field of education. He is also the author of many well-known academic publications. He strongly urges parents to encourage their children to participates in a variety of sports for their overall development.
Ali Ata says that encouraging young children to participate in sports can benefit them in many ways. They learn three valuable social skills which help them to become productive members of society.
1. Learning to work as team players
Most children in their early teens strive to become independent Unfortunately, there are times when these kids need to understand the importance of working alongside other people as a team. Patents who want to can teach this social skill to their children should encourage them to participate in team sports. They will learn the importance of working with their teammates to outperform their opponents. Teamwork is a social skill that will help children to be successful as adults.
2. Installing discipline by following a fixed set of rules
Every sport has a set of specific rules which every participant needs to follow. For instance, in soccer games, none of the players can touch the football with their hands except for the goalkeeper. Parents may want to install in their children a sense of discipline and teach them the importance of following rules. They can do so by encouraging their children to participate as a player in a team sport. They learn to play the sport according to the precise set of rules to avoid disqualification. In the process, these kids also learn the importance of fair play and discipline.
3. Improves communication
Children participating in a team sport will never be successful in winning a game unless they communicate with each other. These youngsters may have exceptional skills when it comes to playing the sport but still need to communicate with their teammates. Fortunately, by participating in a team sport, children automatically learn to improve their communication skills without knowing it. The ability to communicate effectively with other people will also help these children as they grow up to be adults.
Ali Ata explains that encouraging children to participate in sports is essential for their overall development and improving their social skills. They learn the importance of working with their other teammates and communicate with then in order to win a match. In the process, these kids also improve their own communication skills. Moreover, children who participate in sports learn the importance of discipline and to follow a specific set of rules that go the extra mile in making them balanced and responsible adults!