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The influence of play on children
Play influences development in children
The influence of play on children
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Child’s Play:
The First Two Years of Life
In the first two years of life play is both a reflection of and an influence on all areas of infant development: intellectual, social, emotional and physical. Play is a central, all–encompassing characteristic of infant development, allowing children to learn about the world and themselves. Even during the first half-year of life infant’s really do play, even though the interpretation of what is play and what is exploration must first be established. The focus of this paper is to discuss three forms of play that occur during the first two years of life. The work of Jean Piaget and other psychologists in supporting and developing these ideas is critical. The first of these is sensorimotor play which begins with the infant’s accidental discovery of an activity that is inherently satisfying, and consists of the continuos repetition of that activity for the sheer joy of doing so (Hughes, 1991). The second is play with objects involves the intentional handling of an object that leads to satisfaction from the handling. Finally symbolic play is the use of mental representation, in which one object represents another (Hughes, 1991).
Exploration or Play?
The differences between play and exploration can be difficult to assess. When infants are exploring their surroundings, they are usually cautious and serious. While examining an item during exploration an infant would smell, taste and perhaps rub the item against his/her cheek in a ritualistic manner. In play however, an infant would jump from one object to another without care, and play activities are completely devoid of the rigidity previously described.
Finally, when children explore their entire attention is drawn on the object begin explored. Their heart rates are steady, and they are unwilling to be interrupted. Yet, during play the children’s heart rate is variable and they are interrupted easily (Hughes, 1991). It should be easier to tell the difference between play and exploration using these behavioral differences as a guideline.
Sensorimotor Play
The first year of life consists of what Jean Piaget called sensorimotor play or practice play (Piaget, 1962), the repetition of already assimilated sensory or motor activities for the sheer pleasure of doing so. Piaget suggests th...
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... even more sophisticated, as children combine objects in play, use them appropriately, and begin incorporating them into symbolic play.
Symbolic play is characterized by a serious of levels that suddenly appear in the second year. Further development is seen as each level is symbolic play is explored. Decentration refers to the degree that a child is able to shift focus from self to external objects. Decontextualization refers to the use of one object as a substitute for another, and integration is the organization of play into complex patterns.
References
Garvey, C. (1990). Play. Cambridge: Harvard University.
Hughes, F. P. (1991). Children, play and development. Boston: Allyn/Bacon.
Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams, and imitation in childhood. New York: Norton.
Piaget, J. (1963). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: Free Press.
Rosenblatt, D. (1977). Developmental trends in infant play. In B. Tizard & D. Harvey (Eds.), The biology of play. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Sheridan, M.D. (1977). Spontaneous play in early childhood from birth to six years. England: NFER Publishing.
Early Childhood is marked by a time in children’s lives when they develop “a confident self-image, more effective control over their emotions, new social skills, the foundations of morality, and a clear sense of themselves as boy or girl” (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011, pg. 45). According to Erik Erikson, early childhood is a period of “vigorous unfolding,” one where children have a sense of autonomy and a new sense of purposefulness or initiative (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011, pg. 45). Play is a means for children to learn about themselves and they begin to adopt the moral and gender-role standards of the society in which they live (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011). A negative outcome of early childhood is the guilt children feel as a result of excessive punishment and criticism by the adults in their lives (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011)....
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 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.
I really enjoyed observing for this notebook activity because for the first time in my whole life, I had to determine which toys fostered symbolic play and then I had to analyze why a certain toy was beneficial in promoting symbolic play. I observed three different classrooms for this experiment: Cherub’s Preschool, Bethel’s Mom2Mom group, and Mrs. Dexter’s kindergarten class. In the Cherub’s Preschool, the children had multiple toys that promoted symbolic learning. For example, Brody found some farm animals in a bin and he took them out and began to make the sounds that those animals make. This demonstrated symbolic play because he was able to place a symbol (the sound of the animal)
As children play in the dirt, run through the grass, climb trees, build cars and castles, scribble on paper, or sing songs they are developing learning skills that many are unaware. Many people mistake play as uselessness but through Piaget’s developmental stage theory he shines light on such activities and how each stage enhances children’s learning outcomes throughout life. In this paper I want to look at Piaget’s stage theory definition, identify and describe the developmental characteristics of the preoperational stage, his ideal of how a four year old classroom should be set up for activities that will enhance children’s developmental learning and explore one activity for each developmental domain.
Ginsburg, K. R. (2006). "The Species of the World. " The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent–Child Bonds. USA: American Academy of Pediatrics.
Piaget stated that children function in a concrete world and therefore are unable to use language in an abstract way until about eleven years old. Consequently language does not afford young children the structure for appropriate self-expression. Piaget believed that children design symbols to communicate their wishes, ideas and emotions. This system of symbols characterises symbolic play (Piaget & Inhelder,
Wood, E. Attfield, J. (1996) Play learning and the early childhood curriculum. London: Paul Chapman.
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).
...Fein, G. G. 1981. Pretend play in childhood: An integrative review. Child development, pp. 1095--1118.
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.
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.
Jean Piaget’s influence on this developmental area allows us to better understand preoperational thought, egocentrism, and conservation. According to Piaget, preoperational thought is when a child is now able to understand symbolic play and have the ability to imagine something even if it is not physically there. Having these thoughts and abilities can encourage a child to use language to describe their play (Piaget, 1951). Another great example is using art to convey this growth. When a child draws, they are using their memories, mental representations of people, and things around them to put it down on paper! Being able to describe their surroundings is largely made possible by hearing people talk around them. Vygotsky believed children are able to build on cognitive structures by hearing social speech around them. Equally as important as social speech, is a child’s private speech. In early childhood, a child’s private speech will not only help them practice using the newly acquired language, but also learn to internalize dialog for mental activity (Vygotsky, 1962). A great way to improve upon these skills is to ask a child open ended questions to encourage them to use their words. Language will flourish and children will now have the ability to have conversations and tell stories about the things they imagine. While children are learning how to use their words during symbolic