A study of Seferihisar traditional children's plays and toys

Having multicultural structure, Seferihisar Traditional Children' play Culture in return by cultures and civilizations from Anatolia, Balkan, Middle east, Turkish World for over a millennia - cultural richness and diversity, and remains mostly shaped by its deep roots in many civilizations for at least twelve thousand years. Children are prepared for life activities through games which are educational. Children can express joy of life through play. Playing game is important due to basic life skills (physical, mental, emotional and social) improvements. Playing individually, children can gain mental, emotional and very little physical development but in order to develop social skills group- 2 or more kids- playing is necessary. Today, children of all ages are exposed to technology such as computers and digital games instead of traditional games. Computer games have some positive effects on developing skills of eye-hand-brain coordination but don't effect on improvements of motor skills. Children who spend most of their time in front of a screen, are not physically active enough, so they may develop some health problems and loose the ability being social. In order to improve motor skills, tradional and current games should be played by reducing screen time. There are many researches and studies about gaining basic life skills with games in literature.It was not noticed yet any study about classification of games that effect on essential life skills of children. Generally children's plays are classifed according to names of materials and tools, and types of motion in play. Also there are some other classifications such as time of play, indoor and outdoor games, gender types, developing mental and physical skills; games for kids, teens and adults. The purpose of this research is to analyse a new classification for traditional / current children's games according to the functional improvements of basic life skills. Key Words: Turkish traditional child games, basic life skills, Classification of children‟s games, Intangible cultural heritage, Seferihisar