Children need the space and time when they can play, explore, learn and develop. Children need adults around them who have an understanding about the value of play and what their play means. This is how a child learns. It is how they develop new ideas and new skills and how they understand the world around them. These are all vital stepping stones and foundations to lifelong learning.
Play is innate. There is a drive to learn in every child and we, as the adults in their lives, need to nurture that drive. It occurs naturally without thought and exists from birth. Children are born with the will to play and we, as the adults in a child’s life, need to give them the opportunities to play. To learn and develop through play, wherever possible.
Play is the way through which children learn. Whether it is planned or spontaneous, play is an important tool for learning. And play is not just for babies and children. Our desire to play continues as we grow and develop into adults.
Young babies will play by exploring the world around them. Whether that is through finding parts of their body, such as their hands and feet, looking at shapes and faces or amusing themselves with the early sounds they make, they will all have the want and need to explore. They use their senses as a way to explore this new world and will learn through these experiences.
Giving a baby the opportunity to use their senses to explore, builds on their learning about the world around them. Let them use their sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, to explore objects and items.
Children, when playing, are actively learning, engaged and doing what they are doing for their own reasons and in their own way.
Playtime is natural and vital in making connections in a child’s brain, which will then be the foundation of everything they learn throughout their lives. This means that play is a vital part of growing up.
Play allows a child to;
Giving children the space to play in a safe environment will help build the foundations of all future learning. Children should be given the opportunity to explore uncertainty and freely take themselves off to find out and explore things that they are curious about. And it is ok if it doesn’t work the first time, children need to make mistakes as they will learn how to adjust and rebuild. If children never make mistakes, they won’t get that feedback or have the experience that they can then build on.
Social Development is about teaching children about values and them learning the skills that will enable them to relate to other people. These are skills that will be passed on to them via parents and caregivers. They will show an awareness of issues, social values and expectations and will also develop a knowledge of who they are. Role play is a great way of promoting social development, as well as representational play where children copy the everyday activities adults do, such as taking care of a baby, drinking tea, or cooking. Children taking part in team activities and games will increase their social development skills massively, by introducing concepts such as team work, taking turns and sharing.
Physical development is how babies and young children gain control of their bodies. It also refers to how they learn to use equipment and resources and how to keep active and take care of themselves.
It takes time for a child to learn how to sit up by themselves, crawl, then walk, skip, run and move around effectively. The brain is constantly adapting and helps develop a person’s awareness of space and their ability to go from one movement to another. As their brain develops, they learn about the awareness of their body in space and how to negotiate the spaces around them.
They will develop fine motor skills (small movements and gestures with their hands), including being able to grasp objects with their finger pinch, using a pencil or knife and fork, and they will develop their gross motor skills (the big movements), crawling, walking, climbing.
Intellectual Development refers to a child’s cognitive (mental development). How the brain grows.
Children start to learn about their world through play, interactions with others and through their senses. This promotes their intellectual development which means that a child has the ability to think about and understand the world around them. They can also develop their imagination through role play and storytelling, expanding their knowledge and experiences.
The brain grows so much in the first 2 years of a child’s life, that the more a child is exposed to, especially in a play based way, the more they will have the ability to learn.
Communication refers to their language and the way they communicate with others. Each child will develop at a different rate, but this should promote the process of speech, putting sentences together, responding to directions, and even turn taking.
Learning language is a life-long process, but is extremely important in the first year when the brain is making important neuron connections.
A lot of play will be a child repeating everyday activities and using ‘pretend play’ like holding up a telephone or cooking. This will help promote language used in everyday situations and is linked to first words.
The more words a child is exposed to, the more they will learn.
Emotional Development is where a child learns to distinguish between their emotions and know how to express them in an appropriate way. They will also be able to understand other people’s emotions. This will help them to build bonds, attachments and form friendships. We are aiming for children to be able to self regulate, to be able to reflect on their behaviours and feelings and to empathise with others.
0-2 Years:
After birth, an infant’s brain grows as much during that first year of life as it will during the rest of their life. It is important to provide children with the right amount of sleep and healthy nutritious food to assist with this, as well as the right sort of stimulation, including plenty of opportunities for a child to play with a variety of resources and materials.
It is important for children in this age group to form bonds of attachment and feelings of being safe. It will help with a future learning of empathy and understanding relationships.
Each child is unique, and it is important that parents learn to understand, respect, support and encourage the unique characteristics and abilities of each individual child.
2-5 Years
This is the time for a child to explore and get to know the environment around them through movement, speech and emotions. They will also develop their imagination and ‘make-believe’ becomes a part of their everyday routine.
It is important that play is directed by the child, not adults as this will have a major impact in helping them to understand themselves and the world around them. It will help them build their confidence and realise their potential. How they can build and learn from mistakes they make and grow as a person.
Interact in ways that support the development of their ability to think, learn and become independent. You also want to support them to reach their own decisions and build their own values, gaining confidence and independence as they grow.
It is important that any adult who is a parent, or who works within early years understands how and why play is important and how we can support a child without pressing our own views, opinions, ideas and prejudices.
By observing a child’s play and understanding their interests, this gives us the opportunity to extend the play, and ultimately the child’s learning, by supporting them to reach their full potential.
We need to think about:
Play activities can be categorised as child-initiated or adult led. It is important to get the right balance between the two and understand the positive outcomes from each, remembering the basics of why play is important for a child’s development.
‘Child-led Play’ is where the child follows their own play desires. It does not refer to the play during which the adult follows the child, or when the child follows the adult. The children are the play experts and choose to do things their own way for their own reasons.
Child directed play has few questions, instead the adult should be;
Child initiated learning is the best form of learning. As the adult, you want to engage the children in their motivations (the things they love) by providing plenty of resources and an environment that enables them to learn and that is free from distractions.
When setting up or using an environment for children to lead the kind of play they want to do, think about what opportunities you want for them.
They should be able to make decisions, have choices, assert their independence and be able to engage in spontaneous and incidental learning opportunities. By offering this to children, you are building on the child’s needs, stage of development, interests and abilities.
“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.” Maria Montessori
Adults can lead activities as a way of extending a child’s learning. Encouraging children to take part in a skill they may not be so enthusiastic to do can help them develop in ways they had not imagined. By using their motivations (the things you know they will engage in and love) to introduce the new skill, will encourage them to want to learn and they will then develop at their own pace.
Adult led activities should be a way of introducing children to new ideas, but not showing them how to do things or completing work for them.
The focus of an adult led activity in the early years should be about understanding, listening, attention and communication. It should be a way for adults and children to share their knowledge and experiences of their world in an inviting way that allows the child to learn and express themselves in their own time. It is a time for an adult to provide the tools for learning and show encouragement and support.
With all play, try to follow the child’s lead, extend their vocabulary and language development where possible and allow the child to make the decisions.
When you set up a play activity, you may have a set path you wish the child to go down. The majority of the time, the child will choose to use the resources and equipment provided in a totally different way to what you had imagined.
This can be difficult for some adults to let go of this control, but by allowing the child to follow their own ideas and in their own way, they will engage more and they will be learning more too.
We are hoping for our children to show characteristics of effective learning. This is where they are engaging in the process of learning, over the outcome of what they learn.
The Early Years Foundation Stage, which sets the standards for learning, development and care for children aged 0-5 years, has added a section on the characteristics of effective learning so that practitioners can reflect on the different ways that children learn.
They are;
If you adopt these skills when presenting play opportunities to children, then you will get to understand the characteristics of each individual child, as well as knowing what tools and resources to provide for them to play to their interests and skills.
Play should be fun, and opportunities to play should be provided to all children.
