Important Definitions Related to Learning and Play

Stages of Learning
What Children Do / What Teachers Do
Awareness / Experience
Acquire an interest
Attend
Perceive / Create the environment
Provide opportunities; introduce new objects, events, people
Respond to child’s interest/experience
Show interest, enthusiasm
Exploration / Observe
Explore materials
Discover
Create
Figure out components
Construct own understanding
Apply own rules
Create personal meaning
Represent own meaning / Facilitate
Support/enhance exploration
Extend play
Describe child’s activity
Ask open-ended questions “What else could you do?”
Respect child’s thinking and rule systems
Allow for constructive error
Inquiry / Examine
Investigate
Propose explanations
Compare own thinking with others
Generalize
Relate to prior learning
Adjust to conventional rule systems / Help refine understanding
Guide children, focus attention
Focused questions, “What else works like this?”
Help make connections
Utilization / Use the learning in many ways; learning becomes functional
Represent learning in various ways
Apply learning to new situations
Formulate new hypotheses and repeat cycle / Create vehicles for application in real world
Help children apply learning in new situations
Provide meaningful situations in which to use learning
Types of Play with Objects
Type of Play / Use of Object / Examples
Sensorimotor / Explores properties of object by banging, stirring, rolling, etc. / Beads; clay, playdough; sand & water; Lego blocks
Banging pots and pans
Making mud pies
Constructive / Uses materials to make or build things / Using all types of blocks and toys to build towers, buildings, enclosures, etc.
Dramatic / Uses objects to pretend
Begins with real objects
Acts out roles using imaginary objects / Blocks; puzzles; art materials; Lego blocks
Playing house, restaurant, or doctor
Games with rules / Games are played with shared rules
Rules can be unspoken or formally stated / Housekeeping toys; dolls; dress-up clothes; vehicles; blocks; Lego blocks
Playing peek-a-boo, chase, Candyland, or Chutes and Ladders
Social Play
Type of Play / Ages This Begins / Example of Materials To Support
Play with Adults
Plays with parent or other adult / Birth
Solitary Play
Plays alone rather than with peers / 12-18 months / Blocks
Puzzles
Beads
Art materials
Clay, play dough
Sand & water
Lego blocks & other manipulatives
Parallel Play
Children play side by side
Activities are unrelated / 2-2½ years
Associative Play
Children play with same materials but without creating together / 2½-3 years
Cooperative Play
Children create a play theme together / 3-3½ years / Housekeeping toys
Dolls
Dress-up clothes
Vehicles
Blocks
Lego blocks & other manipulatives

Source:Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards Training, 2011

Heidemann, S. & Hewitt, D. (2009). Play: The pathway from theory to practice. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press