PLAY

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PLAY CHILD DEVELOPMENT
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What is Play?

• It is educational it enables
  children to learn about themselves and
  the world around them
• It provides an opportunity to make choices and
  problem solve
• It allows children to use their imagination
• It is a way of making friends
• It is essential to a young childs development

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Views on Play

• Freud and Erikson saw play as a useful way of
  helping children master their anxieties and
  conflicts tension is relived in play, which
  helps the child cope with problems
• Piaget believed play advances childrens
  cognitive development play provides an
  opportunity for cognitive structures to be
  exercised

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The Views of Theorists

• Vygotsky also believed that play is an excellent
  setting for cognitive development and the leading
  source of development. He was interested in the
  make-believe and symbolic aspects of play, which
  he believed advanced a childs creative thought
• The United Nations Convention on the Rights of
  the Child recognizes play as one of the basic
  human rights of children
• Article 31 States Parties recognize the right
  of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in
  play and recreational activities appropriate to
  the age of the child and to participate freely in
  cultural life and the arts

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Play Overall Development

• Play supports children in all areas of their
  development
• When a child uses their body to catch a ball,
  jump and run, they are enhancing their physical
  development
• Puzzles and games support intellectual
  development
• Pretend games and drama allow children to develop
  socially and emotionally

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Suitable Toys for Children

• The Hand to Mouth Stage ( birth to 1 yr)
• Colourful objects, toys that rattle, musical
  toys, soft toys to cuddle
• The Toddling Stage (1 2 yrs)
• Push/pull toys, large balls to roll, toys to
  stack
• The Exploring Stage (2 3 yrs)
• Picture books, large-piece puzzles, sandbox,
  wagons

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Suitable Toys for Children

• The Pretending Stage (3 4 yrs)
• Dress-up clothes, house centres, toy phone, dolls
• The Creative Stage (4 6 yrs)
• Costumes, clay, finger paints, crafts, building
  materials
• The Active Stage (6 10 yrs)
• Skates, bicycles, craft
• The Mastery Stage (10 14 yrs)
• Computers, board games, hobby supplies

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Patterns of Play

• Play becomes more complex and sophisticated as
  children grow and mature physically, socially,
  intellectually and emotionally
• In a study done by Mildred Parten in the early
  1900s , Parten observed children between the ages
  of 2 5 and categorized their play into
  different categories
• Unlike Piaget who saw childrens play as
  important to cognitive development, Parten
  emphasized the idea that learning to play is
  learning to relate to others

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Patterns of Play

• Parten observed the following types of
  play among children of various ages
• 1. Solitary Play when a child plays by
  themselves. For example, a baby playing with
  his/her feet
• 2. Onlooker Play when a child watches other
  children play, but does not join in. This is
  common in toddlers
• 3. Parallel Play when children play side by side
  with different toys or activities and do not
  interact with one another. This type of play is
  common from 1 ½ to 2 ½ yrs of age

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Patterns of Play

• 4. Associative Play when a child plays with
  others and shares toys. This is a type of social
  play and is usually observed in children who are
  about 3 ½ years of age or older since they
  start to talk a great deal
• 5. Cooperative Play a type of social play in
  which children play together in structured games
  that have rules like Hide and Seek or board
  games. To participate in this type of play,
  children need to have reached a stage of
  development in which they are intellectually able
  to understand and accept rules

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Patterns of Play

• 6. Symbolic Play refers to a spontaneous type of
  play that children of all ages enjoy, and it
  involves the use of toys or objects to represent
  something entirely different. For example, a
  hairbrush pushed around on the floor may be
  symbolic of a car or train
• 7. Imaginative Play refers to a kind of dramatic
  play. Examples of this kind of play include
  playing house or other make-believe play. This
  type of play can bring together several other
  kinds of play like cooperative play and symbolic
  play

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Temperament Play

• The kind of play a child prefers is closely
  related to their temperament (combo of physical,
  mental and emotional qualities of an individual)
• Children who are very quiet and passive may enjoy
  onlooker play or solitary play
• Quiet play requires a small area like the corner
  of the room
• Active play requires more space like a playroom
  or family room
• Very active and exuberant play requires lots of
  space like a gymnasium or the outdoors

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Play and Language

• Play is essential when it comes to language
  learning, in that it helps enhance such skills
• During play, children learn to use language for
  different purposes in a variety of settings and
  with different people
• Play allows for purposeful verbal interaction in
  which children use language to seek out
  information and provide information to others,
  explore ideas, express ideas and explore language

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Development of Language

• Language acquisition is the process by which
  humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce
  and use words to understand and communicate
• This capacity involves the picking up of diverse
  capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an
  extensive vocabulary
• This language might be vocal as with speech or
  manual as in sign

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Process of Language Acquisition

• Babbling and Other Vocalizations Crying and
  babbling are the first vocalizations humans make.
  Infants also start to use gestures at about 8 to
  12 months of age
• Recognizing Language Sounds from birth up to
  seven months, infants can distinguish each of the
  150 sounds that make up of human speech

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Process of Language Acquisition

• First Words The utterance of the first word
  usually occurs at about 10 to 15 months of age.
  The vocabulary spurt refers to the rapid increase
  in an infants vocabulary from about 18 months of
  age. The average 18-month-old can speak about 50
  words but, by age 2, can speak about 200 words.
  The first words include common nouns (about
  people, toys, food, etc.) and greeting terms
  (bye)
• Two-Word Utterances By 18 to 24 months of age,
  children usually utter two-word statements

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Process of Language Acquisition

• Lev Vygotsky suggested that children use parents
  and other adults as learning tools in the
  development of language
• Through social interaction, parents naturally
  encourage language development by repeating
  sounds, playing rhyming and word games, singing
  songs, reading aloud, etc