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Influences on play, learning and development
Influences on play, learning and development
Importance of play in holistic development
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Play which is often called the ‘work’ of children, is the universal language of childhood, it's how children learn. It's through play that children understand each other and make sense of the world around them. Having time and space to play gives children the opportunity to meet and socialise with their friends, keeps them physically active, and gives the freedom to choose what they want to do. Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children. Play is more than just fun for babies and children. It’s how they learn best, and how they workout who they are, how the world works and where they fit into it.
Benefits of play
Play is often called the ‘work’ of children. We therefore need to encourage unstructured free play, loosely supervised, as much as possible as over programming spoils the true benefits of play, here are some benefits toddlers gain from play.
Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and
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Unlike preschoolers toddlers take plenty of time when they are playing, they want time to look at and try everything they see, they’ll stop to look at cracks in the cement, wander into other people’s front yards, or pick handfuls of flowers. That’s why a walk to the letter box can sometimes take an hour. Toddlers also want to see how things work. A toddler kid will open and close drawers, turn containers upside down to check out their contents, put toast in the DVD player, and put all sorts of objects into all sorts of holes to see what happens. By the time the kid is three, ‘pretend’ games like dress ups and playing house are likely to be favourite activities. This type of imaginative and creative play also helps toddlers express and explore new emotions they might be feeling at this age, like frustration, sadness and
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).
Wasserman (1992, p135) describes five benefits of play: children are able to create something new, take risks, avoid the fear of failure, ... ... middle of paper ... ... ocial development. Different types of play promote different aspects of social development such as social competence, achievement of sense of self and social perspective-taking skills. However, play is not the single causal factor that promotes a child’s social development.
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,
Many children enjoy outdoor play, all aspects of development and learning are related in play. When children have ample time to play, their style of play will grow in how complex and also socially demanding it will become, for example as children maybe grow older they will choose who they will want in their friendship groups to play with them. As children play they are able to explore different materials in their environment and also discover different properties. As play continues children are able to use their knowledge of materials to play imaginatively with
An Article by Dr. Leong and Dr. Bodrova (2016) stated that play is beneficial to children’s learning especially when it reaches a certain degree of complexity. When they engage in play activities most of their early years, they learn to delay gratification and to prioritize their goals and actions. They also learn to consider the perspectives and needs of other people and to represent things significantly to regulate their behavior and actions in a cautious, intentional way.
Play helps equip children for what life may throw at them. Children are born to be actively engaged and explore the world with their own eyes. Through play children learn what it means to fail in life as well as what it means to accomplish a goal. Play is not only a strategy to keep children entertained in early childhood, but also allows children to learn how to create and work together at an early stage. Children at play has been undervalued by society without realizing that “playfulness is that benign base on which the most valuable worlds of children can be successfully built (Iakov, 2012, p. 25),” meaning that play is a fundamental strategy that assist children to develop experiences for the future. It is very upsetting that society undervalues play without acknowledging that play allows a child to express his sentiments and understand how to deal with emotions. Also, play has the power to teach children about themselves. Specifically, a child will “begin to have an ever-greater influence on perception and understanding of (certain aspects of) the real world and real events- past, present, and future- and begins to define the relation with the real world (Iaakov, 2012, 26).” This demonstrates that just as food helps build the body, play helps a child develop their mind for what lies ahead of them. During the observation at the Jewish center, the three activities done in class demonstrated cognitive and social learning through play and activities.
A major question that is continuously being researched and observed is whether children’s play is beneficial to children’s development. While many scientists have proved that play is, in fact, helpful in the development of children, I want to research how the different types of play affect children’s development, specifically children that are transitioning from late infancy to toddlerhood. The four different types of play that I will focus on observing is exploratory and manipulative play, functional or relational play, social play routines and pretend play. Furthermore, I would observe the children’s agency during their play and the social structures that can prevent children from playing, thus, resulting in lack of development.
All children play and it is something that most children do because they are having fun, but without realising children are developing and learning skills when they are engaged in play. Play helps stimulate the mind as it is practical and gives children the chance to explore and experience new situations. It can also ensure that children get to think by themselves and be spontaneous as they control their own play. Children get the chance to be creative and imaginative which develops independence for children. Play is vital for child development and helps children develop five main areas of development:
For all living beings play is an instinctive biological disposition, which helps to facilitate and enrich children’s overall development. As well as play being beneficial in assisting individual lives, many theorists as well as researchers have shown play to form a fundamenta...
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
The book, Exploring Your role in Early Childhood Education, defines play as, “any activity that is freely chosen, meaningful, active, enjoyable, and open-ended.”(pg. 140) Play has many positive characteristics such as freedom to explore and create. Suppose when a child enters his/her classroom and has various self-selection activities available, the child can become engaged in something of interest specifically to that individual child. The book also states, “Play is active and is natural process of mentally and actively doing something.”(pg. 140) When children can act out or explore experiences they are having hands on experience and learning by actually doing. Without knowing it, children are practicing body movements as well as mental processing though acting imaginary games out.
Early childhood teachers often say that “play is a child’s work” while some parents ask ‘Did my child just play all day?’” (Rice 1). Many people do not realise how important play is and what role it plays in the development of their children. Teachers provide opportunities for children to have spontaneous, unstructured child-initiated play experiences by providing stimulating materials to “enhance and entice children into play” (Rice 2). These materials include loose parts and are open-ended and spark creativity by providing children opportunities to think, plan, and carry out their play (Rice 2). Limited learning may take place if teachers do not make play easier and maximize the benefits (Rice 2). Teacher support is also a necessary component
Children develop normally when they are exposed to different types of play that allow them to express themselves while using their imaginations and being physically active. According to the Center for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness, “Play is child’s work”; this is true because it is a child’s job to learn and develop in their first few years of life, in order for them to do this, they play. Not only is playing a child’s full time job, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights listed play as a right of every child. Through their full time job of play, the children develop emotionally, socially, physically, and creatively. Children need to participate in child-led play in order to facilitate healthy development of their minds, body, and creativity.
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.
In Kindergarten school, some parent believes play is the best way for young children to learn the conceptions, skills, and set a solid foundation for later school and life success. In the other hand, many parents disagree and believe play is a waste of time, messy, noisy, and uneducationall. I believe play is not waste of time, but it something worth to fight for, in this presentation I would show parent the main importance of some of the numerous kinds of play, and why play is a fundamental basis for improving children’s ability to succeed in school and life.