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A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play
In this book about the importance of children, imagination, and their fantasy play, written by Vivian Gussin Paley, she discusses the disappearance of creative free play in children’s school, and how it can potentially hinder a young child’s development. Vivian takes us on a journey through different classrooms around the world, in order to explore the impressive language of children during their free time, role-playing, and storytelling. In these classrooms, Vivian records the children’s stories and how they interact with each other, in order to grasp an understanding of the meaning that lies in their fantasy play. Early on in the book, Vivian states that, “There was a time when
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play was king and early childhood was its domain.” (Paley 4) Based on her book, as well as the Play and Child Development textbook that we use in class, one can seriously wonder when play was no longer reigning over early childhood development. In an interview titled “The Importance of Fantasy, Fairness, and Friendship in Children’s Play”, the American Journal of Play sat down with Vivian and discussed varying aspects of her book with her.
Vivian makes a comment about how originally, the title of her book was going to be “The Endangered Occupation”, because play is a “serious and necessary occupation of children.” (“The Importance of...” 122) She then goes on to talk about how when she was growing up, there certainly was no other serious occupation for the youth but to play. As our book discusses frequently, with the changing times, technology has taken over a majority of our daily interactions, and unfortunately, children’s play has certainly become one of them. As a result of technology such as video games and the internet, active play and healthier diets are emerging as major issues correlated with health concerns. (“Play and Child Development” 22) In another part of Vivian’s interview, she mentions how the neurologist Sigmund Freud considered our human life force to be made up of work and love, in equal measure. A better formula for children would be something along the lines of “play, with a mixture of love, equals life.” Although we do see play as children’s work, parents and caregivers absolutely play an essential role in their development and how they see play in either a positive or negative
light. In our “Play and Child Development” textbook, Chapter 3 titled “Neuroscience and Play Deprivation”, discusses the human brain and how studying it is resulting in extensive awareness regarding childhood development, medicine, education, and so on. In a later area of the chapter, it gives a summary of the conclusions that can be made between brain research and child development. The list is very extensive, as some of the ideas include: Start early, Spend lots of time playing with children, Hug children, and Introduce music, art, and dance early, Protect young children from extreme stress and trauma, etc. The suggestions on this list can indeed be linked with a young child’s brain development, and how they view play. As the caretaker positively reinforces their actions during their fantasy play, it can encourage the child to be as free as they want, or if the caretaker discourages them from free fantasy play, the child could learn to restrict themselves and thus hinder the parts of their brain that rely on creativity. Overall, Vivian Gussin Paley’s book gives us an extensive look into not only classrooms around the globe and how they deal with play, but it also allows us to see into the minds of young children and caregivers, as they navigate their way through early childhood using play as a teaching and learning method. “A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play” also shows us how children can easily become the teacher to their adult counterpart, and not even realize they are doing so. Early childhood development is crucial to both the child and their adult counterparts.
Interestingly it was through this process of sharing our professional experiences that we established the central idea of our exhibition. We had determined that the importance of play in the Early Years was a theme that was often debated by parents, colleagues and policy makers. By choosing this as our topic we hoped to have an enhanced understanding of the historical implications of play in Early Years Education, resulting in professional competence and the ability to guide and mentor others on the significance of play. Rodd (1996) endorses this importance of Early Years Professionals having the skills to build, establish and maintain credibility in the fast-changing sector of Early Years.
"I believe quite strongly that there is great value in play. Play is learning lessons that often can't be learned anyplace else.’’1 An unknown middle schooler. Dr. Barros decided to conduct the study after observing a young patient's classroom--to see how antsy the student and his peers were by lunchtime.”They were given no work breaks, save for 15 minutes of quiet snacking at their desks.they were so drowsy”.
Play is the engagement in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or particular purpose. Children are playing constantly, but to what point does being safe alter the stimulating and the overall enjoyment of play. In the 21st century adolescents have been less subjective ti risky play in western society due to parents becoming more protective over the safety of their children. It is important for parents and child care givers to understand the different categories of risky play and why adolescent children should partake in risky play to an extent. Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter explores the idea on how to categorize different types of risky play in her article, Categorizing risky play- how can we identify risk-taking in children
J. R. R. Tolkien is one of the greatest fantasy writers in history. He gave a lecture titled “Fairy Stories,” which was later altered into an essay retitled “On Fairy-Stories.” The thesis of his argument explores the concept of fantasy and the profound belief that there is no such thing as writing for children. In Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy-Stories” he argues that it is not necessary to be a child to enjoy and read fairy tales.
In the past two era’s, structure and fear played a role in children’s books. This era takes a new turn by focusing on protecting the children’s childhood. Imagination showed up in numerous books; Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss, If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss, Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. The emotion continuously appears in those books. For this era in particular, imagination seems to be a bigger trend.
Thomas, Melissa. "Teaching Fantasy: Overcoming the Stigma of Fluff." English Journal. 92.5 (2003): 60-64. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. .
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)
Initial studies of fantasy in children mostly involved either a detailed observation of children’s play (Griffiths, 1935; Piaget, 1962) or a normative investigation of children’s stories, daydreams, and reported play activities (Ames, 1966; Green, 1923). Observation studies of imaginative/pretend play pr...
Jacqueline Rose defines children’s literature as a “seduction” or a “colonization” of the child in an imposition of the adult ideal of childhood (qtd. in Redcay). Criticism of children’s literature and all research about children is developed by adults who speak of the children on the basis of the assumption that children are inherently weaker and cannot speak for themselves, much like how colonizers speak for the colonized. There is a distortion in the way childhood is perceived and represented, as it is presented as an adult would remember it, and also the ideal that an adult held about childhood.
In a culture saturated in high tech toys that explode with dynamite sounds and whirling lights, children spend countless hours watching television and playing video games and less time engaging in creative and imaginative play. In Claudia Kalb’s article “The End of Make Believe,” she introduces the Knott family from Cleveland, Ohio. Kris Knott and her husband, parents of three active children, are striving to get back to the basics of play by increasing family time and decreasing their children’s television and video game usage. During the summer months, it would not be uncommon to find the entire family outside enjoying a pleasant evening together. Mrs. Knott states that “entertainment is not play” and children need carefree, less structured time to use their imaginations (Kalb, par.1). While the Knott’s children have plenty of organized activities such as after school sports, their parents recognize the importance of using imagination and creativity as a source of play (Kalb, par.1). In the same manner, parents must limit children’s time engaging in technology by creating quality family time and encouraging more creative and imaginative play for intellectual, emotional, and social skills to develop.
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
Many researchers have underestimated children’s ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality due to “methodological problems and overgeneralization” of children’s performance in conditions where they have little control. Therefore, the main goal of this article was to explain that children have the ability to differentiate between fantastical and real entities. Also, there are different types of fantasy/reality distinctions, and that cultural backgrounds could influence children’s fantasy/reality judgments. In terms of fantasy/reality distinctions, Taylor (1997) argued that children often recognize that their actions during pretend play, only belong to the realm of pretense—and thus, not real. However, since there are many fantasy/reality distinctions, children tend to be confused. For example, human-like fictional figures (i.e. Santa Claus) tend to confuse children because parents often provide evidence that he exists. Thus, children are able to differentiate between fantastical and real entities only when they have some control over the experience (i.e. pretend play). Then finally, culture also plays an important role in fantasy/reality distinctions. For instance, Western children view pretend play as an imaginary compassion but children form other countries (i.e. India) refer to fantastical things as real things that exist in a spiritual realm.
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.
Holistic development of young children is the key determination and through play they are able to survive and become physically healthy, able to learn, and emotionally secure and into where they progress into responsible and productive adults with positive reinforcements in the future. When there are societal issues that are barriers such as “technology, childhood obesity, culture, etc.” (Gaston, A, Module 1, Unit 1, 2016), children are then unable to revel in freedom of movement in where play is adventurous and brings out positive behavior. “Play supports the holistic development through the development of intellectual, emotions, socially, physical, creative and spiritual” (Gaston, A, Module 1, Unit 2, 2016), signifying that holistic development is an important factor to be aware of as the child grows. An example would be when in Workshop 1 of Social and Cognitive Styles of Play, we had to play in the given activity for the time being and observe our members and distinguish what kind of cognitive play it was. And one of the assigned question to
Children’s literature is, as Peter Hunt argued, a ‘remarkable area of writing: it is one of the roots of western culture, it is enjoyed passionately by adults as well as children, and it has exercised huge talents over hundreds of years’. Children’s literature is good quality books for children from birth to adolescence, coating topics about importance and interests to children of those ages, through prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Children’s literature is probably the most exciting and vibrant of all literary studies, and its wide range of texts, from novels to picture books, and from oral forms to multimedia and the internet, presents a huge challenge. The important theme in children’s literature is the tension between the popular and the prestigious, or in other