2. Things to come in this subject
- 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
9. Vygotsky and Play
- http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v
=-SpC0INWo3o&feature=related
- 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
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.
- http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1320498.htm
13. Script Theory
- 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