Play and Spoken Language Development

The Plowden report (1967) published the intrinsic worth of play as the central approach of acquiring knowledge in the early years of children’s lives.

The word play cannot be easily defined because it always depends on the contexts and the contexts also vary. There are different forms of play such as fantasy play, free flow play, constructive play, imaginative play, role play, socio-dramatic play, structured play, pretend play and heuristic play. These forms of play are categorised as “Play as learning”, and “Play as Practice” (Macintyre 2001:6). Moyles (2005), states that it is quite adverse that the phrase play has numerous meanings, and this makes parents to be wary of it. Meckley (2002) in his framework suggests that all different types of play involves varieties of activities and behaviours which results in diverse developmental and learning outcomes. Research suggest that the means to spoken language development in children’s brain is hearing language consistently because it is as a result of this that they would be able to speak (Brotherson,2005).There are evidences that toddlers who experienced talking with their mothers when they were infants have advanced vocabularies and a firm foundation for future communication. Snow (1997) claims that children who are deprived of language experiences at age four encounter a breach which barely expands over the school years. Claxton (1984) defined play as a method and approach which offer learning culture in which children’s fundamental learning needs can be met. He argued that these needs include the chance to communicate, question, interact with others and be part of a wider social experience in which flexibility, lenience and self –discipline are crucial. Moreover, different typ...

... middle of paper ...

... principles, 2008).The EYFS has been a statutory requirement ever since 2008 for each and every ofsted registered settings. Furthermore, contributions from brain research have presented a lot of backups for the early years as a time for nurturing children’s learning holistically. Children’s communications and early experiences while they play has impact on the way the brain develops, and assist in shaping its formation(Shore,1997).This research, acknowledged the value of play as a “scaffold for development, a vehicle for increasing neural structures, and a means by which all children practice skills they will need in later life”(Isenberg&Quisenberry,2002:33). Meek (1985),proposed that it is through reading activities that children will start to learn a bit regarding metalinguistics, the language of language, and the concepts of words.