Growing up as a child, you participate in many different ways of playing. From organized sports to hide and seek in your house, children seem to always be playing games for fun. One of the first forms of interaction children have is through play. Play is any activity that is fun, spontaneous and open-ended. The main focus of play is for children to use their imagination. By putting an emphasis on play being created through imagination, children have the ability to control what play is. While play is very broad and open-ended, there are a few different types of play that are most present when children play games. The main ways of play are social, parallel, sociodramatic, language, object, and locomotor play. Social play is playful interaction …show more content…
The development of these motor skills will lead to more exploration through walking, crawling, and using their hands to explore objects in more complex ways. Parallel play usually occurs between the ages of two and three. Parallel play is where children really start to interact with other children. Through parallel play, children will start to learn how to share and expand their imagination. In parallel play, children play next to each other but with little to no interaction (“Learning Through Play”, 2013). By sharing, using teamwork, and imagination, children will start to develop their own rules for games and actually follow them. Sociodramatic play occurs when children are interacting with peers of the same age. This is seen a lot between the ages of three and five. As children grow older, they start to become more independent and use the skills they have learned in the first years of their life to communicate and play. Children will tend to participate in small group games at this time, which helps increase their interpersonal skills and simple rule following. However, children still play individual games such as reading, rhyming games and arts & crafts. Locomotor …show more content…
Students who have been exposed to play growing up will enter the classroom setting with increased imagination and interpersonal skills. This will allow for these students to have an open-mind when it comes to whatever games you are playing and be able to follow rules correctly. Aside from their increased social skills, students who were exposed to play will have a stronger base of locomotor skills. This will allow you to continue further development of those skills. Incorporating dancing and rhythm games will create a bridge between play and locomotor activities that will comfortably shift the students into more rigorous physical activity. Students already have a fundamental base of interpersonal skills that will allow for group activities in the classroom. While play education might not be a priority in the classroom, play is an important component to physical education. Teachers may not be educating in play, but children being exposed to play will create success in physical
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
Today 40% of children suffer from ADHD, while 60% suffer from depression(Institute 3). Simple remedy: Structured Play. Structured play: is a type of play that is goal/objective based and generally has a structure as to how it should be carried out (Nelson Par 8). Contrary to structured play there is the idea of unstructured play. Unstructured play is a type of play that is unplanned which is the primary reason it is also termed as ‘spontaneous play’ or ‘free play’. This type of lacks adult supervision and guidance (Nelson Par 9). Over the last few years there has been a debate on whether early childhood playtime should be structured or unstructured. Early childhood playtime should be structured
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.
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).
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:
Play is such an important part of the learning and growing, especially for children. Children engage in many different types of play, but the play I saw the most when I observe the children of my daycare is sociodramatic play. The book Understanding Dramatic Play by Judith Kase-Polisini defines sociodramatic play as “both players must tacitly or openly agree to act out the same drama” (Kase-Polisini 40). This shows that children play with each other and make their worlds together as equal creators. Children also work together without argument.
...ctive. Play is an essential learning tool and one that must not be ignored within the classroom. It is a catalyst to help children develop socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively. It is not only an important part of a child’s development as a pupil but also a child’s development as an individual.
Motor-Physical Play- Examples of such play happens when children run, jump, and play games such as hide and seek and tag. This offers a chance for children to exercise and develop muscle strength as well as teaches children social skills while enjoying good exercise not forgetting that they learn to take turns and accept winning or
What is play? Play is defined as engaging in activates for enjoyment & recreation rather than a serious practical purpose. Playing is a disorganized voluntary spontaneous activity, which may include objects, one’s body, symbol usage, and relationships. Play is flexible, individualize, grouped, motivating, self-directed, open-ended, or self-directed. (Smith, 2013) (Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, 2010)
In life, no action is absent of a reaction. Every effect is linked to a cause, whether seen or unseen and play is no exception. As adults, play is not a foreign concept to us, we just chose not to engage in it and have diminutive space for it reserved in our day-to-day schedules. However, it is essential in the lives of young children. In the moment, the benefits to play are invisible, yet they are there working. Play, like a Newton’s cradle, remains stationary while not in use and the energy remains in a potential state waiting to be activated. Now, imagine the Newton’s cradle as you are pulling back the first ball. The first ball is play in a child’s life, and the other balls are potential benefits.
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.
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.
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.
By interacting with others in play settings, children learn social rules such as, taking turns, trade, cooperation, sharing, rules, and mixing with other. They discover scenes and stories, solve problems, and negotiate their idea through social barriers. They know what they want to do and work conscientiously to do it. they learn the powerful lesson of pursuing their own ideas to a successful conclusion. Also, support most children progress from an egocentric view of the world to an understanding of the importance of social skills and rules, they learn that games such as follows the Leader, baseball, and soccer cannot work without everyone obeying to the same set of rules. It teaches children life has rules (laws) that we all must follow to function effectively. Research shows that children who involve “(in complex forms of socio-dramatic play have greater language skills than non-players, better social skills, more empathy, more imagination, and more of the subtle capacity to know what others mean. They are less aggressive and show more self-control and higher levels of thinking”.
A very wise man; Charles Schaefer, once said “We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” To begin with, there is no one explanation about what play really is, other than the fact that it holds infinite numbers of definitions according to every single individual. Play is just not a physical body movement involved in an activity, but more than that if you look outside of the box. For centuries, play has been practiced in its own unique way with not only children, but adults as well.