Enhancing Learning through Play

A developmental perspective for early years settings

Christine Macintyre

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317206941
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Written to explain why children need to play and offering practical guidance on how to best support children's development through play, this fully updated third edition includes a wealth of new information to reflect recent changes in the curriculum and early years qualifications.

Featuring new chapters on pretend play and the impact of parenting on child development, the book addresses practitioners key concerns through an accessible Q&A format supported with case studies relating to different play situations. It encourages the reader to challenge their own perceptions about play, exploring why children behave as they do at different stages in their development and showing how play can complement and enhance their social, emotional, perceptual motor and intellectual development.

This jargon free, updated edition presents:

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• a clear and detailed explanation of the different kinds of play children engage in as they learn and grow.

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• how children learn through their play in a variety of situations.

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• the subtle but genuine differences between male and female development.

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• the difficulties children may have when they have over or under sensitivity to any specific sense or any problems with movement.

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• the importance of emotional well being in children and how this affects their ability to play.

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• an introduction to senses and brain development.

Providing a grounded and gentle introduction to child development, this book brings a deeper understanding of children's learning through play and is an invaluable resource for students on early years courses and practitioners.

CHAPTER
1
Setting the play scene

Chapter summary

Chapter 1 sets the scene, explaining how this book complements and elaborates on the general advice given in regional documents such as the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland and The Early Years Foundation Stage guidance in England and Wales. It details the myriad of benefits children gain from play and so justifies play as the cornerstone of learning. It highlights the importance of staff observing, analysing and recording children’s spontaneous and supported play as a basis for planning the best way forward. Some new suggestions include studying children initiating play activities and how learning to pretend can stimulate the development of a theory of mind, a critical facet of social communication. It considers the conflict that can arise if children’s parents have different expectations, perhaps preferring only skill based input such as teaching the children to write and explains the concept of ‘readiness’ so that the children’s learning opportunities match their ability to succeed and so they become confident and competent learners. It shows how practitioners strive to have a balanced curriculum, which has some directed teaching while promoting children’s imaginative work so that the children have the intrinsic experience of pleasure in having achieved something of their own. This ‘something’ involves them in planning, sequencing and problem solving, key aspects of learning.

How fascinating and challenging it is to observe children at play. How rewarding it is to see children play together, sharing ideas and using their imaginations to build their very own scenarios that express the things they like to do. How gratifying it is to be sure that children are gaining in confidence and fostering all aspects of their development, physical/ motor, intellectual, social and emotional as they play. Yet how difficult it is to observe ‘the shifting sands’ of play activities, for individual children bring different perceptions, preferences and preconceptions based on their previous cultural and home experiences combined with their personality and temperamental traits. This is the ‘nature / nurture’ aspect of their development. The ‘nature’ aspect involves their genetic blueprint or what they inherit through the gene pool, and this combines with their ‘nurture’ or how their social, emotional and physical environments provide or deny positive support and opportunities to do different things. Only through careful and prolonged observations can practitioners develop eyes that can see, appreciate the interaction of nature and nurture, come to understand how both influence children’s participation in play and on this basis, discern the best ways to support them. And when some children have complex needs, the responsibility of ‘getting it right’ can be daunting indeed. In each case practitioners should communicate with parents so that each gains a deeper understanding of the child in different settings. Arguably more so when the children have different cultural backgrounds and the practitioners need guidance on how best to use the most apt cultural information to enrich the children’s play.

Many observation schedules have been prepared by educationalists and researchers to help identify developmental milestones e.g. in speech development and for physical / motor gains and although the recorded ‘age at which children should do things’ is wide, the milestones do give credence to the finding that individual children are developing ‘on track’ or differently from the norm. However there are other subtle attributes in development that contribute to children’s competence and self-esteem. It can be even more demanding to monitor these, e.g. children’s understanding, imitating /copying, pretending, showing intent or indeed motivation. And yet these are fundamental to the acquisition of developing a ‘theory of mind’, that is the capacity to appreciate that someone else may have different thoughts and preferences to one’s own. These may be influenced by the children’s gender and their culture. Listening, observing and respecting are the basis of developing communication, altruism and empathy i.e. of real social nous. Yet practitioners, particularly inexperienced ones can find waiting and watching so difficult because they are conditioned to be seen busily interacting with the children. Waiting and absorbing the children’s perceptions and preferences is a real skill for when the children initiate and sustain play even for a short time, they are bringing something of themselves to the activity and this can be so revealing. They are demonstrating ‘where they are at’ and this allows adults to decide ‘where it is best for them to go’.

The book also suggests activities that practitioners might like to try for themselves or in groups of colleagues. These are meant to help reflection and so deepen their own understandings of the complex developmental issues that abound when children play.

Illustrations in the book

In each chapter there are pictures of children playing. These are not just pretty pictures – they are to stimulate discussions and focus observations. Hopefully they will allow practitioners to reflect on similar children in their own setting and knowing how to observe and analyse what they see, they will be able to appreciate more and question more in each of the four aspects of development. In this way they will fulfil The goals of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS 2014) and Curriculum for Excellence (CforE) in Scotland.

The aim in observing children at play is for parents and practitioners to discover the key strategies individual children choose to use; to observe and record these, then build on them to extend their learning. This might be done by listening, then just silently and unobtrusively following the children’s lead. Or if this is not appropriate or doesn’t work, adults can offer a choice of ideas or add resources (rather than words) to the play or share a range of experiences/ideas to take the children forward in each aspect of their development. Adults need to appreciate what the play means to each child; they need to understand the child’s perspective and acknowledge their successes and disappointments, hopes and fears. They need to appreciate that there should be a balance of new learning and time for practice so that the children can feel they are making progress without being stressed. The timing may be different for each child. And when this is done, together they can make play the joyful, beneficial experience that lets children:

1 Understand their own environment and appreciate that of other children.

2 Practise skills and develop abilities in each activity of daily living.

3 Gain confidence in making play choices and learn to cope with praise when anticipated plans develop well or even disappointment when that doesn’t happen.

4 Use their imaginations to foster creative thinking.

5 Begin to recognise and describe their intentions and share their thoughts.

6 Have an enhanced self-esteem.

In this way the children develop a ‘theory of mind’ (ToM) and are enabled to appreciate what another person is thinking or feeling. This allows them to react and respond appropriately in different contexts.

Sutton-Smith (1997) endorsed this group of important benefits, writing, ‘Play exists to evolve the self by providing intrinsic experiences of pleasure, relaxation and escape, either through play itself or through the aesthetic satisfaction of play performances.’

He is reassuring us that children’s personal and social development is pleasurably enhanced by the satisfaction that emanates from play. He also claims that children gain in stature and confidence through appreciating and enjoying play activities.

A sceptic might ask, ‘Can play really offer all that?’

It certainly can when parents and practitioners recognise the benefits inherent in giving the children freedom to choose then supporting them, either in giving them time and encouragement or intervening appropriately if play stalls. Then they have to make decisions as to the best way to interact / intervene. This is not an easy thing to do. Before intervening at all, adults need to ascertain what skills are already in the child’s repertoire, make appropriate suggestions / actions, then as soon as possible turn the development over to them. Otherwise the ownership of the play changes and the children, no longer ‘in charge’, wait to be told what to do. When this happens the ‘children become compliant, they may even become disenchanted with learning’ (Dowling 2004).

However, there are times when specific skills the children don’t have, need to be taught. Often they are closed skills, so called because the same pattern is effective in different tasks, the environment doesn’t really impinge. So the children must learn to absorb their landing weight and roll safely before they jump from a height; carry scissors carefully with points well covered before they move from the spot; set the table for tea, learn the routine for hand washing after visits to the toilet, even button their coats before venturing outside on a frosty day. There is one best way for learning such life skills. Children can gain a huge sense of achievement from learning to do such responsible jobs but these must be offered when the children are at the right developmental level to master them. A key learning skill that needs to be practised in a certain way is learning to crawl using the cross lateral pattern for this links with the development of visual acuity and with writing and reading. If the children don’t do this naturally, then intervention has to happen because of the many advantages this brings (see Chapter 3).

Many parents are anxious that a child-centred curriculum based on play will be less beneficial than one where letter sounds and counting are taught every day and they need explanations and ideally demonstrations of how play activities form the basis of a whole plethora of life and learning skills. They also need to appreciate that there is a gender difference that can influence ‘success’ if that is measured by being able to do certain things listed on a chart. This has to do with developmental timing because innate differences cause young boys to develop their language skills slightly later than girls while they are enabled to run and jump and make spatial decisions more quickly. Forcing children to do particular activities before they are developmentally ‘ready’ means that they fail and this can only negatively affect their self-esteem.

Activity

Look carefully at these two four-year-olds. What do you understand from this picture? Discuss with a colleague and compare notes.

FIGURE 1.1 Arron is not enjoying this activity. His expression says it all!

Meet Anna who relishes writing and Arron who is not yet ready to tackle this skill. Look at his expression – he is wondering why he cannot do this work as well as his friend. He doesn’t know that the language area in his brain is myelinated slightly later than in Anna’s so he will be less deft at skills like these in the early years. He has forgotten that he can kick a ball accurately and climb higher than she can, but perhaps acquiring these skills is not as important in this school’s agenda? Do we really want children to feel inadequate at four? Would Arron not gain more from strengthening his fingers through moulding clay and learning his letters through tracing patterns in the sand? He has not yet mastered the pincer grip, so controlling the thin pen to do formal writing is impossi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Setting the play scene
• 2 Identifying children’s learning in different episodes of play
• 3 Three critically important issues
• 4 Understanding the importance of imitating or copying and pretending: developing a theory of mind and building a positive self-esteem
• 5 Understanding and supporting children who find it difficult to play
• 6 Understanding sensory integration and the early development of the brain
• Appendix: Stepping stones showing progress in movement and language
• Bibliography
• Index