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Essay vygotsky cognitive development of the child and the education implications
Essay vygotsky cognitive development of the child and the education implications
Influences of play on learning and development
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Many theories have illustrated the role of play in children for their development. According to Jean Piaget children are actively involved in their environment. The child initiates an activity and assembles the necessary information through exploration of his environment. This is where Piaget’s introduced schema. Schema is basically how knowledge is structured or categorized in a child’s mind. According to Piaget (2006), schema is formed through the process of assimilation (child views the environment according to his way) and accommodation (enhancing on the knowledge the child already knows). Piaget suggested that children developed through 3 stages: mastery stage/ practice play, play stage/symbolic play and game stage/ games with rules (MCI, Child development module, chapter IV, 2013).
Play is important for a child’s holistic development which comprises of physical (gross and fine motor development), intellectual (analyzing, understanding, concentrating), language (communicating with others like speech), emotional (emotions, identity) and social (relationship with others) (MCI, Child development module, chapter I, 2013). A holistic approach revolves around the child and sees each child as an individual. All children pass through each area of development and learn different things at different stages of growth like crawling, walking, etc. All are linked together and if any one aspect is not achieved then the child will have delays or problem reaching his milestones (Sheridan, 2002). The play should be always initiated by the child otherwise the child will not enjoy their play or get creative.
According to the theory of Vygotsky (1999) cognitive development was directly related to play. Vygotsky (1999, p10), “distinguished two l...
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...r or parent should be aware of the level of cognitive development so as to know what type or level of scaffolding can be given to the child. In short, “the adult’s role is to provide a structure within which the children can interact – to challenge, to set up problems to be solved, to encourage children to test out ideas and, perhaps more importantly, to open up personal learning strategies to children” (Moyles, 2005, p123).
An adult should always observe a child in whatever he/she is doing. Observing will provide us with important information about the child’s development and what more can be done while a child is playing (Sheridan, 2002). To understand a child in depth it is better if the adult plays or uses the materials which are used by the child. This will let us in on what exactly a child might feel or discover with that particular toy (Jones, et al., 2006).
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)....
Theorists help us to learn about play and help us progress in relation to approaches and future planning. Vygotsky believed that imaginative play and relationships are important in relation to a child’s learning, and his theory was called the social constructivist theory. He believed that through play a ‘zone of proximal development’ is created, in which a child’s learns at the height of their potential. He argued against Piaget’s theory. Piaget argued that children did not necessarily learn through play but play just showcases and applies what they have already learnt. Piaget’s theory stated that there was two aspects to play – sensory and movement play and imagination, pretend and symbolic play. The McMillian sisters theorised the idea that children would find it extremely difficult to learn, play and develop without good hygiene and good health. Froebel also had strong opinions on the role of play. He believed in the importance of symbolic play, and imaginative play - stating it was one of the best ways for
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.
Play is instrumental in the healthy development of children. The development of play throughout an individual life is essential in providing the necessary methods to foster growth and development in critical developmental areas. According to Davies (2011), play is instrumental in providing a bridge for the child to transition from a toddler with a limited capacity to understand the world into a child in the middle years who can think logically. Play is also important in fostering cognitive development, social development, language and communication, moral development, self-regulation, and sense identity.
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.
The volumes of Piaget’s work provide an in-depth view of how children create knowledge.” (Mooney, 2013 Pg. 78) In other words, Piaget thought children learned best when they are actually doing the work themselves and creating an understanding of what is going on rather than be given instructions. Piaget also believed that children need every opportunity to do things for themselves. “For example, children might be interested in how things grow. If a teacher reads them a finely illustrated book on how things grow, this instruction will increase the children’s knowledge base. But if the children have the opportunity to actually plant a garden at school, the process of taking care of the plant will construct a knowledge of growing things.” (Mooney, 2013 Pg. 79) Piaget stressed the importance of play as an avenue for learning. In Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development, children aging from 2-7 are in the preoperational stage. “Children form ideas from their direct experiences in life. This is why telling children something is less effective than finding a way to help them think their own way through a problem.” (Mooney, 2013 Pg. 86) Gross-motor development, fine motor, language-communication development, social-emotional development is the 4 crucial stages for a child’s development. In a classroom is important to ensure opportunities for the children to grow individually in
I observed Mrs. Linscott’s classroom with three year olds at the East Lansing Child Development Laboratory. Along with the children, there were a few adults to help with the class. I focused on seven main things while observing the children. First, I focused on one child for 15 minutes and took note of their motor, language, and social development. The second thing I observed was how the adults in the classroom interacted with the children.
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).
The children are put through different learning experiences and tasks, for the professionals to evaluate and observe their different development stages. All this helps to understand the children’s adult characteristics for future life as every child’s play experiences are crucial to their adult life.
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.
To clarify the importance of play I would first explain what is the character of play in early childhood
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