Play in the Preschool years
Leading source of development between 2 and 6 years of age
Vygotsky
Preschool years the play years
Berger and Thompson 1996
“The years of early childhood are the most playful, acquiring the skills, ideas, and values that are crucial for growing up. They chase each other and dare themselves to attempt new tasks, developing their bodies; they play with words and ideas, developing their minds; they invent games and dramatize fantasies, learning social skills andmoral rules.”
Play Affects and Reflects Development
Areas: Physical, Cognitive, Social, Emotional, and the Development of Literacy
Physical Development
Preschool acquire basic motor skills
- gross motor
-fine-motor
-perceptual movement
Gross Motor Skills
toddlers - control of basic movement
preschoolers- refine mobility skill
Locomotor skills
Fine Motor Skills
gain precision - 3-5years
Perceptual-Motor Skills
results interaction sensory perception and motor actions in increasingly complex and skillful behaviors
Involves:
1. Body awareness –understand body parts, what the body parts can do
2. Spatial awareness- how much space the body occupies and how to use the
bodyin space
3. Temporal awareness-relationship between movement and time,
rhythm, , sequence of events
Play and Physical Development
Play is child initiated different then teacher directed
Children today…
Collaborative planning between early childhood and physical educators is needed
Free Play
Equipped playgrounds
Need space outdoors all kinds of physical movement
Need time engage in play activities alone & with friends
Adults Roles in Physical Play
Include outdoor playtime
Need to provide free play at home ..
Teachers need to be knowledgeable about motor skill development
Cognitive Development
Preoperational 2-7 years
Egocentric- animistic
1. Symbolic thought
2. Intuitivereasoningbeginscentration , more classification and
conservation
Play is the foundation of academic learning
Researcher have found that preschoolers who spend more time engaged in sociodramatic play are advanced in intellectual development.
Children who enjoy pretending score higher on tests of imagination and creativity
Play allowed the child to function at higher levels than other activities - Vygotsky
Two essential ingredients of play are
1. The involvement of the thinking processes and
2. Repetition of social interactions.
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Overview
Functional play begins with practice play and play with objects in infancy
In early childhood, object play becomes more complex and goal oriented and incorporates construction play
Representional playin early childhood years
symbolic play begins with substituting. or representation of one object for anotherand becomes more complex in sociodramatic play
Games withrules begin in early life
Preschool rules with simple games lotto, matching, games with spinner
More sophisticated games involve concrete operations
The amont of time in play transforms functional play to constructive play
Adult Roles in Cognitive Play
Provide play activities that will lead to thinking and problem solving
Rich and varied material
Enhance the activity through social interactions
Provide emotional security
Encourage cognitive and problem solving by teaching children to use senses
Modeling playful behavior and problem solving
Literacy Development
Defined as the ability to read and write
Communication begins with oral language
Begins in infancy – rapid in preschool
Aware of books and written language
Incorporate in day to day living
See the purpose and functions of literacy
Come to understand print not just pictures, gives meaning to books
Come to recognize elements of written material
Writing efforts
Variations in Language and Literacy Development
All major developmental milestones in acquiring own languageoccur by age 6
Differences
Girls
Middle Class
Single Born
Play and Language and Literacy
How do children play with language and how is language used in play ?
Play with Language
sound play infants
play with speech by toddlers grammar
preschool system explore and manipulate the many aspects of their language
Toddler playing with blocks
Now it’s don un un
Done un un un (Garvey 1990)
More purposeful play children’s jokes, chants, rhymes
Knock, Knock or inappropriate use of words
Play and Language Development
Language is a social event used to plan, play, carry out roles, and talk about play events
Play and Literacy Development
pretend play role literacy
*Symbolic transformations used by 3-year olds in play predicts their writing
status at age 5.
*Their use of oral language in dramatic play predicts later reading
achievement ( Roskos & Neuman, 1998)
*Dramatic play – role play … oral language generated in socio-dramatic play
leads to the later ability to encode information in word (Pelligrini 1984)
Sociodramatic Play
Advance form of social and symbolic play
At least two players interact within the context of a play episode
There is verbal interaction related to the play episode
Socio-dramatic play is the vehicle where by young children use all of their development attributes.
Expression of Feelings - can reduce anxiety
Adult Roles in Language and Literacy Play
Use expanded language
Adult support and participation in play promotes development
Suggestions
Open-ended questions
Use elaborated language
Provide materials
Modeling how children can incorporate literacy activities into their play
Social Development
Part of social world
More autonomous
Emotional development involves:
1. Self concept- major accomplishment between 3 &6
2. Self Esteem
3.-Self-Regulation of Emotions
Relationships Influence Social Emotional Development
1. Parent-Child Relationships
2. Sibling Relationships
3. Peer Relationships
Social Competence
Socially competent children exhibit a positive demeanor around or towards others, have accurate social information processing abilities, and display social behaviors that lead them to be well liked by others.” Berk 1998
Insecure attachment/ quality attachment
Interaction with parents and siblings
Difference due to
Genetic differences, parenting style , and effectiveness in child rearing and effective peer relations (RubinCoplan, 1998)
Genetic Difference
Identical twins
Parenting Style and Effectiveness in Child Rearing
Parenting style affect sociability
Authoritarian or permissive socially withdrawn, incompetent and aggressive (Baumrind 1991)
Effective child rearing
Are more competent social play
Model arrange play activities
Caregivers/ childcare setting effects social competence in play(Creasey, 1998)
Effective Peer Relations
Socially competent engage successful peer play
More skilled in understanding the play cues exhibited by peers
Skilled in peer interactions more likely to engage in high levels of fantasy play (Creasey, 1998)
Play and Social-Emotional Development
Theoretical views of Play and Social Devt.
Piaget (1962)
Other perspectives
Erikson (1950)
Learn about the social world and try out new skills
Promotes social competence
Vygotsky
Make believe vital for the acquisition of social and cognitive competence
Sutton –Smith 1976
Relationship between play and evolution
Children’s social play resembles that of primates necessary for survival
Adult Roles in Social Play
Adults need to believe in the importance of social play for preschool children
Parents role models
Parenting styles
Coach children on prosocial behaviors
Model how can develop friendship
Dates withpeers widen friendships variety of children
Daily opportunities free play
Props and material changes of toys and material
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