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The impact of play on childrens development
The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Education
Importance of play based learning in early childhood education
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Contextual information - The play based learning experience is created to help struggling students of Year 1 and exceptional students of foundation year. This learning experience will help these students to improve their literacy skills. The students of the class are very interested to participate in play based activities.
According to rationale of Australian Curriculum, the study of English helps create confident communicators and imaginative thinkers (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2016). Students learn to analyse, understand and communicate with the world around them. It also plays an important role to develop reading and literacy skills which helps students in their future in fields of education, training and workplace. Through this learning experience,
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“Play based learning is a context for learning through which children organise and make sense of their social worlds, as they engage actively with people, objects and representations” (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009, p. 3). In this play based learning experience, students will get opportunities to learn as they imagine to be a character of the story (a bear, a lion, a sheep, a moose or a zebra). When they will play with each other, they would create social groups and build new understandings, for example what is the setting here? This experience would allow students to ask questions, explore, solve problems and engage in critical thinking.
According to Vygotsky’s theory, through play children learn new things and it facilitates cognitive development (Fox, 2008). Students would be able to enhance language development, creativity, imagination and thinking skills through this learning experience. They are provided play materials and props related to the story for dramatic play. Piaget and Vygotsky link play with cognitive development of
The word “play” has numerous meanings to different people in different contexts. Therefore it cannot have one definition and is described in a number of ways. Smith (2010) describes play as involvement in an activity, purely for amusement and to take part for fun. That play is “done for it’s own sake, for fun, not for any external purpose.” (Smith, 2010. P4) Therefore, as one precise definition cannot be presented for the word ‘play,’ it is described in a number of ways such as social dramatic play. Briggs and Hanson (2012) portray social dramatic play as the building blocks of a child’s ability to accept the possibility to step into another world, building and developing on children’s higher order thinking, accentuating the child as a social learner. Another example of play is exploratory play, which is described as children being placed in an explorer or investigator role, to identify the cause or affect a resources that is presented to them has. (Briggs, M and Hanson, A. 2012) Games are also another example of play. They are included on the basis that playing games with rules, regardless of age, can develop a child’s intellectual capabilities along with their physical, behavioural and emotional health. (Briggs, M and Hanson, A. 2012).
The second section will evaluate the importance of play on different aspects of social development and in various stages of an individual. The third section will analyze how viewpoints on function of play on development are shaped by historical and contextual factors such as culture and economy. Developmental psychologists use various research methods such as naturalistic observations, interviews, experimental research and examining the natural context of children’s everyday interaction within the family to study the role of play in children’s development. They apply different approaches to study different types of play. Play by nature, creates a natural learning environment for the child.
More specifically, imaginative play is very important during this stage of development because it serves as a means of understanding the world. For example, imaginative play allows the child to comment and try to understand reality via an imaginary world that the child can control and manipulate. This in turn, allows the child to express their feelings in a pretend scenario without receiving the same responses if expressed in reality. As a result, this assists the child in the understanding of emotions and perspective thinking because during imaginative play, the child expresses strong emotions and must empathize with each other’s ideas and feeling (Davies,
..., J., & Garzoli, E. (2007, November 11). The Effectiveness of a Play-Based Curriculum in Early Childhood Education. Retrieved from http://teachplaybasedlearning.com/8.html
Play helps build sturdy learning foundations because later levels of learning are built upon the earlier ones. All types of play, from fantasy to rough-and-tumble have a crucial role in the development of children. It is the lens through which children experience their world and the world of others. If deprived to play, they are at bigger possibility for atypical development and deviant behavior. Without play, self-control does not develop satisfactorily Goldstein, J. (2012)
Wood, E. and Attfield, J. (2005) Play, learning and the early childhood curriculum: edition two. London, UK: Paul Chapman Publishing.
Infants play different from children who are three-years old. Infants at the age of eighteen months roll around on certain objects. For example, an infant might lean and roll around on a ball that is slightly inflated. Babies make noise as they play with other children. Infants also play with toys that interest them. There is usually soft furniture in infant play areas. Babies who are six months cannot walk therefore they can lie next to each other and make different noise with their mouth. Babies usually spend time playing on the floor.
Cynthia, H (2008) Let's Play! Using Play-Based Curriculum to Support Children's Learning throughout the Domains. Available at: http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=453 (Accessed: 8 April 2014)
Many theorists have tried to define play as a concept, however, no two agree on a set definition. Their backgrounds and induvial lifestyles influence the way they see the importance of play. Reed and Brown also believe that there isn’t an agreed definition of play because is something that is felt rather than done (Reed & Brown, 2000 cited in Brock, Dodd’s, Jarvis & Olusoga, 2009). In spite of this, it is clear that most theorists uphold the ethos that play is imperative to a child’s learning and development. There is a wide range of different studies and theories which helps us develop our own perception of what play is. In my personal experience I have found play to be a way of expressive our emotions, exploring and learning new things, thus
Thinking back on my childhood, I first remember all the times I played outside in my backyard. I would pretend to dig up dinosaur bones or create imaginary realms of ancient lands; there I would perform diplomatic services for the people in need. I was usually alone, and those are some of my fondest memories. When I first decided to become a teacher and thought about what is important to my philosophy on how children learn, I immediately knew I was a strong believer in play. Although, many decision makers such as legislators and school district leaders believe in more academic types of learning styles, my paper will discuss why play is so powerful and important to children.
Isenberg, J. P., & Jalongo, M. R. (2010, July 20). Why Is Play Important? Cognitive Development, Language Development, Literacy Development | Education.com. Retrieved March 3, 2014, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/importantance-play-cognitive-language/
Isenberg, J. P., & Jalongo, M. R. (n.d.). Why is play important? Social and emotional development, physical development, creative development. In Creative thinking and arts-based learning preschool through fourth grade (2006 ed., pp. 53-55). Retrieved from http://www.education.com/ reference/article/importance-play--social-emotional/
Children have a natural inclination to play, alongside a natural instinct to learn and to be curious and inventive, which are characteristics of the human race in general. This quote taken from Janet Moyles is a good starting point for this essay. It is well known that children love to play. If a child were to be left to his/her own devices they would happily play and create new worlds anywhere they were left. It has been well documented and researched that children learn excellently through play. However they are not always given the opportunity to do so, instead being told to, ‘finish your work and then you can go play’. Obviously this is not always the case, but the fact that it is a common practice shows that we do not all fully appreciate the importance of play to children’s learning. This essay will attempt to show how children learn through play, making reference to current theory and practice. I will also give examples from my own first-hand experience of how children learn and develop as people through play.
Before diving into my research, I reflected on the knowledge I already knew regarding play and play based learning. From experience, I know that play is an enjoyable activity for children, and even some adults. I know that there are different ways one can play. For example, playing with others is known as cooperative play and playing alone is considered solitary play. There are different types of play. For example, there is dress up or pretend games, which is considered dramatic, play and there is playing with building blocks which is constructive play. After my reflection I realized that I was more knowledgeable on the action of playing rather then the benefits of it.
Socio-dramatic play benefits children by developing social and oral interaction with peers, and extending their vocabulary with topic related language. Educators can set up socio-dramatic play areas so that they contribute to developing the children’s emergent literacy skills. Fellowes and Oakley state that educators can facilitate emergent literacy learning in a socio-dramatic play area by including writing materials that can be easily included in play, for example, note pads and clipboards. Another way to facilitate emergent literacy is to include real texts such as signs in the play area, but these texts must be relevant to the experiences of the children (2011). An example of a socio-dramatic play area that helps develop emergent literacy skills is a restaurant or café. To allow the children to have opportunities to develop their emergent literacy knowledge while playing in this socio-dramatic play centre, the educator could add these literacy related