Connections with the first years of school and beyond.
Outdoor and physical play, including rough and tumble.
Play and observation/assessment.
Special education needs and play.
Teachers role in enriching play
3. Play in our lives
Play is a legitimate and important part of early
childhood.
It is a form of disciplined freedom.It continues throughout the
lifespan and is valuable in itself as well as a vehicle for
transporting and integrating development
(Pronin-Fromberg 2002, p. 20)
4. Play (Ginsburg 2007,pp.182 191)
is essential to development
contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional
well-being of children and youth.
offers an ideal opportunity for parents to engage fully with
their children.
allows children to use their creativity while developing their
imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional
strength.
is important to healthy brain development.
allows children to create and explore a world they can master,
conquering their fears while practicing adult roles
5. Quotes on play
Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other
adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human
experience.Johan Huizinga
Play is the exultation of the possible.Martin Buber
Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for
life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesnt taste
goodLucia Capocchione
We dont stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because
we stop playing.George Bernard Shaw
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in
a year of conversation.Plato
Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can
unfold.Joseph Chilton Pearce
6. Benefits of play
Play enables children to find out about themselves and the
world.
Play helps towards happiness.
Play helps prevent boredom.
Play can help reduce stress.
Play can help divert aggressive instincts.
http:// www.learningchild.com.au/ccd/play
7. The Importance of Play
Most powerful learning medium- multifaceted
Helps children make sense of situations and their world- allows
them to discover
Allows development of new concepts
Evolves over time, with constant changes and adaptations
Facilitates risk taking and problem solving
Increases social skills and emotional support
Children can take responsibility for their own learning
(Isenberg & Renck Jalongo 1997)
8. False dichotomy
Education for young children should resemble
play, with children delighting in acquiring
knowledge and skills in ways that make them
feel competent and capable
(Hirsh-Pasek;,Michnik Golinkoff, Berk & Singer 2009, p.
15)
It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still
differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play
without seeing the vital connection between them.Leo
F.Buscaglia
Consistent with a wealth of current research, sociocultural
theory stresses that children contribute actively to their own
development, etching their unique imprint on everything they
learn
(Berk 2001, P. 245)
10. Howard Gardner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBknM7-AkAM
Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Could play be an intelligence of its own accord?
11. Fromberg: 3 parallel theories in dynamic interaction 12.
Theory of Mind (TOM)
is a specific cognitive ability to understand others as
intentional agents. That is, to interpret their minds in terms of
theoretical concepts of intentional states such as beliefs and
desires
There seems to be evidence of a steep development of TOM around
age 3.
This is a theory which posits that human behavior largely falls
into patterns called scripts. These scripts provide a program for
action in a particular situation.
Particularly important in early childhood educationas they
develop relatively early in life and are seen as the foundation for
the formation of more abstract and complicated situational
knowledge.
14. Chaos Theory
It is the study of dynamic systems that are highly sensitive to
initial conditions.
Small differences in initial conditions yield widely diverging
outcomes for chaotic systems rendering long-term prediction
impossible in general.
Non-linear environmental conditions
Can you see the relationship to play here?
15. References
Berk, L. (2001).Awakening childrens minds:how parents and
teachers can make a difference.NY:Oxford University Press
Ginsburg, K. R. (2007). The Importance of Play in Promoting
Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child
Bonds.Paediatrics 119, 1, 182 191
Hirsh-Pasek, K;Michnik Golinkoff, R; Berk , L. & Singer, D.
(2009).A mandate for playful learning in preschool:presenting the
evidence.NY:Oxford University Press
Isenberg, J. & Renck Jalongo, M. (1997).Creative expression
and play in early childhood.2 ndedn.Upper Saddle River NJ:Prentice
Hall
Moyles, J. (2005).The excellence of play (2nd edn).Maidenhead :
Open University Press
Pronin-Fromberg, D. (2002).Play and meaning in early childhood
education.Mass:Allyn & Bacon