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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