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Influences on play, learning and development
Influence of play on children's development
The importance of play in a child's life
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Recommended: Influences on play, learning and development
Today I am going to talk about the importance of play as a vehicle for young children’s learning and development in the early years of primary school. Here I am going to talk about what is play and why it is important for young children. According to Burdette & Whitaker (2005), play is an activity in which children engage to amuse, occupy themselves and optimize their brain development. Play is essential for children’s development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social and emotional wellbeing. During play, children work in groups, share with each other, negotiate and resolve their conflicts. There are different types of play. In pretend play, a child often pretends to be a mother when playing in kitchen corner and a builder when building blocks in construction corner. In creative play, children enjoy being creative by painting, dancing, playing with recycled objects and working with …show more content…
It creates a zone of proximal development in the child (Berk, 1999, p. 227). According to Vygotsky, conflict and problem solving are essential features of child development (Van Hoorn et al., 2007, p. 36). In zone of proximal development, children perform beyond their usual level of functioning when engaged in cognitive and social collaborations. Vygotsky believed that play was essential to development and it is a major source of it. There is a clear link between play and children’s learning and development. Vygotsky (1978) described the levels of learning at social level (interpersonal) and individual level (intrapersonal). He clarified that children develop the understanding of rules. In dramatic play, rules are implicit, forms the foundation of games and rules become more explicit. For example, fireman wears safety hat all the times. Children learn rules about social behaviour from their experiences in family and cultural backgrounds. Before play, they develop the capacity to negotiate the
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.
There are many different categories of play and children can be involved in more than one type at any time. While observing Owen, the following types could be noted:
In the early stages of development, it was noticed that children learn by playing. In fact, play, in a developmentally appropriate environment, inspires the child to relate oneself to the environment while making sense of the infinite elements where the children unites internal processes with external influences. Therefore, as children play, they learn. This theory demonstrates that the children learn while having fun. As the children internalize the sensations of the environment, they somehow integrate personal experiences to hypothesize the so-called impossible. This brings us to the concept of imaginary play where such play is constant as children relate their hopes and experiences to the new sensations. However, as their minds translate external experiences with personal meaning, children become masters of their environment and such environment may be defined as a continuum between the imaginary and the sensory (Bodrova and Leong, 2006). In addition, complex yet accessible relationships occurring in the classroom enrich the mental processes of young students. This is proven when children reflect on their environment, as they instinctively classify experiences according to both individual personality and the surrounding culture (DeVries, 2008). As children become familiar with the syntax of social knowledge, their worlds are somehow shared with one another to form a social imagination. According to Gardner (2007), a child struggles to comprehend new experiences, he or she will naturally utilize scientific notions of problem-solving and critical thinking. As the child begins to understand experience, social cooperation augments skills of perspective and interpretation. In one hand, shared activity provides a meaningful social co...
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.
In my research “The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Development” States.. “Play is essential for a child’s development and for learning life skills. While
Research affirms that through play, children develop cognitive and affect, necessary for general functioning of human
Wilson quotes Piaget in stating, “Play is the work of childhood, and how young people learn and develop schema about the world” (p.144). Especially for younger children, play is
When children move from a self-centred world to an understanding of the importance of social contracts and rules, they begin to play games with rules. Part of this development occurs when they learn games such as “Follow the Leader”, “Kibet Says”, and “team sports”. Dramatic play requires children to impose details, information and meaning into their play. Dramatic play structures should be very simple and basic in design and construction. A basic structure of four walls, a roof, and a window can be the children’s home, a classroom, a doctor’s office, or a castle.
This assignment will give a brief outline on the role of play in the life of young children (aged 0-6), it will discuss why play is an important part of a child’s life and an important part of a child’s learning and it will
1.0 INTRODUCTION Children learn when they explore, create, improvise and imagine. While play provides opportunities for children to learn in an interesting way. Play also provides a sustainable environment where children are encouraged to ask questions, engage in critical thinking and problems solving during play with other children, teachers or parents (Department of Education, 2009). Through play, children challenge each other’s thinking, test out ideas and build new understandings which enhance their intellectual development as children can learn more knowledge from others. Other than that, play can be a way of building social groups while they communicate with other children, and strengthening a relationship as they trust each other while playing with friends as it helps to create a trusting relationship gradually.
Play is a big part of every child’s life, from birth up to around seven years old. It is majorly important that every child plays in day-to-day life, as it can help them learn in many ways. According to Friedrich Frobel, he thought that’s how children could learn, through play. ‘Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul.’ (AZ Quotes, 2016).
Bruce (2001) discusses the benefits of play as giving children an opportunity to explore their world in a creative manner whilst developing a sense of belonging, self-awareness and social skills. Play is believed to encourage imagination and creativity, as children become symbol-users, develop abstract thinking and allow children to explore themselves in various
The importance of play and the impact it has on the development of a child has a number of benefits that contribute to establishing the foundation a child needs in order to be successful in their journey of learning. The Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) plays an important role that involves the support of families and communities through a diverse program which the teacher can provide with the cooperation of everyone together for the success of the student. This can be accomplished through the appropriate teaching skills that are applied in the curriculum and some examples will be given. Then we will address the importance of academic disciplines and how play is a part of the
Background: Play is a pivotal part of a child’s life. It fosters creativity, imagination, social connections, and learned behaviours. Play is the activity which can be defined as “a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities that are normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment.” Play can also be considered a rehearsal for acting-out real life events- such can be seen when children play house or school. For children, play is a critical element of growing up. Ginsburg (2007), stated that childhood play is essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental stages. Play also helps children dispose of abundant amount of energy and excitement. Play is often undervalued
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.