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The importance of Play in the early development of Self-Regulation

Dr. David Whitebread University of Cambridge

Painting the wall

Why are the children doing this?

Overview!"

A. The importance of play in early development"

B. Self-regulation and learning in young children"

"C. The importance of Play in the early

development of Self-regulation"

Dr David Whitebread University of Cambridge

With Marisol Basilio, Martina Kuvalja and Mohini Verma

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!A!report!on!the!value!of!children’s!play!with!a!series!of!policy!recommendations!!

A. The importance of play in early development"

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Play & Learning: what is the evidence? •  Evolution of playfulness central to humans as a highly

adaptable species: –  ‘Nature and uses of immaturity’ (Bruner, 1972): –  Play in hunter-gatherer societies (Gray,

•  Supports healthy brain development (Pellis & Pellis, 2009: The Playful Brain)

•  Supports key developmental abilities: –  Symbolic/language development: Christie & Roskos , 2006) –  Self-regulation (cognitive control; Hyson, Copple & Jones, 2007; Ponitz,

McClelland, Matthews and Morrison, 2009; Whitebread, 2010)

•  Strongly related to cognitive development (Tamis-LeMonda

& Bornstein, 1989) and emotional well-being (Bornstein, 2006)

The Five types of play

•  Physical play •  Play with objects •  Symbolic play •  Pretence •  Games with rules

Learning & Development in Physical Play

1.  Exercise play: strength and endurance, whole body co-ordination

2. Rough and tumble: emotional attachment, emotional and social skills

3. Fine motor practice: hand-eye co-ordination

Learning & Development in Play with objects

Sensory play, sorting, building and making Thinking, reasoning, problem-solving and Creativity ‘Private speech’ and self-regulation

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Learning & Development in Symbolic Play

Language, Visual media, Music Early language development, communication skills, literacy, numeracy, artistic creativity

Learning & Development in Pretence play

Objects, Roles, Stories Narrative skills, social and groupwork skills, self-regulation of emotions and behaviour

Learning & Development in Games with Rules

Physical, Board & card games, Computer games Understanding rules, social skills, discussion skills

B. Self-regulation and learning in young children""

Lev Vygotsky"1896 - 1934

Children’s learning is a process of progression from ‘other - regulation’ to ‘self-regulation’.

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Vygotsky and self-regulation

•  Learning occurs in the zone of proximal development

•  Learning starts in social contexts

•  Scaffolding of children’s learning by adults

•  Process of internalisation

•  From other-regulation to self-regulation

Vygotsky’s zpd

LEVEL OF POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT

Istomina (1975): playful contexts supporting self-regulation

Alochka A. (five years. two months) was busily engaged in preparing lunch, and several times reminded the experimenter that she needed salt. "

When it was her turn to go to the store, she asked, with a busy expression on her face: "

"Z. M., what should I buy? Salt?""The experimenter explained to her that this was not all and named four more

items that were needed. Alochka listened attentively, nodding her head. She took the basket, the permission slip and money and went off, but soon came back. "

"Z. M., I have to buy salt, milk, and what else ?" she asked. "I forgot" "The experimenter repeated the items. This time Alochka repeated each word

after the experimenter in a whisper and, after saying confidently, "Now I know what I had forgotten," went off. "

In the store, she went up to the manager and, with a serious expression, correctly named four items, with slight pauses between each. "

"There is something else, but I forgot" she said "

The Self-Regulated Learner

•  has a wide repertoire of metacognitive and cognitive strategies"

•  deploys these strategies appropriately and in agreement with specific task demands"

•  plans, monitors the quality of performance, uses strategies and changes them when necessary"

•  is intrinsically motivated, seeking challenge, persisting when facing difficulties and interpreting failures as opportunities for learning"

Self-regulation and learning: a selection of the evidence

•  The HighScope study: David Weikart et al (1993)"–  Plan, do and review"

•  Clancy Blair et al (2007)"–  Inhibitory control (peg tapping) at 4/5 years and early

reading/maths a year – 18months later"

•  Peter Ornstein et al (2010)"–  ‘mnemonic’ teaching style in Grade 1 and achievement on

a Study Skills task in Grade 4"

•  John Hattie (2009) & Steve Higgins et al (2011):"–  Visible Learning: feedback, metacognitive "

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High Scope follow-up at 27 years :

Higgins et al: over 50 meta-analyses of effective

educational interventions :

C. The importance of Play in the early development of Self-regulation"•  Mental representation: Berk, Mann & Ogan (2006)

–  observational studies of incidence of ‘private speech ’among 2- to 6-year-olds

–  20 – 60 % of pre-school children’s utterances –  high levels of private speech during make-believe or pretend play

•  Self-regulation : Manuilenko (1948) –  study of 3- to 7-year-old children ‘standing sentry –  children standing sentry in a room containing playmates managed

to stand motionless for significantly longer than when they were on their own.

Play & self-regulation studies in my research group

1. C.Ind.Le project (Whitebread et al, 2005, 2007, 2009)

–  observational studies of incidence of self-regulatory behaviours among 3-5 year olds during play

–  705 ‘events’ containing metacognitive or self-regulatory behaviours

–  Most frequently occurred during play activities which: •  were initiated by the children (64.6%) •  involved them in working in pairs or small groups (76.5%) •  involved extensive collaboration (47.9%) and talk (67.7%)

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Putting bricks in the truck

Play always has a goal; there is always a challenge

CHILD 3-5 CHecklist of Independent Learning Development 3-5

Statements under each of the four areas of self-regulation identified by Bronson (2000)"

•  Emotional!•  Can speak about own and others

behaviour & consequences"•  Tackles new tasks confidently"•  Can control attention and resist

distraction"•  Monitors progress and seeks help

appropriately"•  Persists in the face of difficulties!

•  ProSocial !•  Negotiates when and how to carry out

tasks"•  Can resolve social problems with peers "•  Shares and takes turns independently"•  Engages in independent cooperative

activities with peers "•  Is aware of others feelings and helps and

comforts them "

•  Cognitive!•  Is aware of own capabilities"•  Can speak about how they have done

something or what they have learnt "•  Can speak about planned activities "•  Can make reasoned choices and

decisions "•  Asks questions and suggests answers "•  Uses previously taught strategies"•  Adopts previously heard language for

own purposes!

•  Motivational!•  Finds own resources without adult

help "•  Develops own ways of carrying out

tasks "•  Initiates activities"•  Plans own tasks, targets & goals "•  Enjoys solving problems "

2. Social pretend play (Whitebread & O’Sullivan, 2012)

Implicit and explicit metacommunication: C8: I’m the farmer A2: And am I the farmer’s wife so? C8: You’re the farmer’s wife and I’m the farmer as well as the Dad, you’re the farmers’ wife. You have to put the bales of hay in the trailer there (pointing to his tractor constructed from wooden blocks and the chairs which are signifying the bales of hay) A2: No! I don’t want to get dirty! C8: No you won’t! The bales are clean; we need to lift them on the tractor A2: Can I just not make the tea? C8: Ya, you can make the tea and when you’re ready then. . . then, come over A2: Ok, I’ll make the tea and then I’ll come over!

2. Social pretend play (Whitebread & O’Sullivan, 2012)

The Garden: Using explicit metacommunication

to organise the play

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3. Musical play

(Zachariou, 2012)

•  Evidence of significant cognitive, emotional and social self-regulation during musical play

4. Play, Learning & Narrative Skills (PLaNS) project

•  108 children in 5/6, 7/8, 9/10 age groups •  Constructional, pretence & combined play conditions •  One year intervention •  Impact on metacognition and self-regulation skills •  Impact on fictional and non-fictional narrative skills

To conclude Pellegrini (2009) concludes that play (as opposed to ‘work’) contexts allow animal and human individuals to •  Focus on ‘means’ rather than ‘ends’. •  Try out new behaviours, exaggerate, modify,

abbreviate or change the sequence of behaviours, endlessly repeat slight variations of behaviours etc

•  Develop problem-solving skills in primates, and the whole gamut of higher-order cognitive and social-emotional skills developed by humans.

The importance of play •  Play is characterised as:

–  a type of activity which is essentially unimportant, trivial and lacking in any serious purpose

–  something that children do because they are immature, and as something they will grow out of as they become adults

•  On the contrary, play: –  Is one of the highest achievements of the human species –  Enables the development of language, the arts, culture,

science, mathematics and technology –  Supports self-regulation as a key developmental

mechanism

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Thank you for listening!