Adult Led Activities Research Paper

How play helps build thinking and language skills, large and small motor skills and social-emotional skills How play helps children prepare for academic learning and supports the development of literacy How children playing gradually builds the foundation for reading and writing through growth in oral language, learning to love books and gaining an understanding of print.

There are many factors on how play can affect the child, as Brussoni, Olsen, Pike and Sleet (2012) said children learn about societal roles, norms, and values and develop physical and cognitive competencies, creativity, self-worth and efficacy. When children play it helps them develop the sense of intrinsic interests, how to make decisions, problem solving, following the rules, regulate emotions and maintain and develop peer relationships. If children are restricted from free play then it might potentially lead to lifelong

Children can learn how to play with others when adults join them in play. This is the key way in which babies and toddlers learn about turn taking and also responding to others. When adult play with children, they can also show haw to share and how to cope when their idea is not accepted by others.

Children can learn from play because they are exploring and designing. In my opinion, I believe in the Agentic Child view and that a child is not born a blank sheet. Children are smarter than most people think. They are capable and competent. They are social actors and learners and will often take action themselves to learn. A child and an adult both negotiate and share power. The adult helps by lending their power and resources with the child, rather than imposing power on the child. Adults help support the children rather than govern and make every single decision for the child. Children are not as helpless and clueless as some people may think. Children do need support from adults in terms of necessities such as food, clothing, water, shelter

(MacIntyre, 2011, p. 29) states that “The study of play and that of child development naturally complement each other”. This supports the idea that children can develop socially through play. Social competence needs to be obtained to have a positive interaction with peers, to build relationships and to nurture friendships (Johnson et al., 1999). There are many different types of play that can impact of social development. “Mildred Parten differentiated the social development of children into three levels” (Xu, 2010, p. 490).

Play is the most common activity in childhood. Trough play children can learn, create, and, socialize at the same time it helps children to increase their knowledge. That is why Crowther states, “In summary, play offers children rich learning experiences that enhance all levels of development” (Crowther, 2016, p. 12).

The next type of the play that is mentioned in the article is Social Play. Through social play children learn cooperation with others and sharing with others. This also helps student with learning the rules and in getting along with others. Rules are part of a kindergarten curriculum and social play is on their level of understanding during the different social stages. In addition there is also Constructive Play. This play is where children can build with blocks, play in the sand, woodworking bench, and draw murals. By having Constructive Play in your classroom this allows children to experiment with objects and gives the children a sense of accomplishment helps them with control of their own environment. I feel learning with play benefits

Play-based learning has been defined as “a context for learning through which children organise and make sense of their social world as they engage actively with people, objects and representations” (DEEWR, 2009). Playing is one of the most important parts of a child’s development phase. The characteristics of play include active where children use their bodies and minds in their play, communicative where children will share knowledge of their play with others, enjoyable where they will be able to have fun, meaningful as plays help them to build and extend their knowledge and sociable and interactive as when playing they will need to interact with others. Playing also allows children to interact with adults and this exchange of ideas between children and adults in play contexts influence children’s continued motivation in the experience. As children develop, the skills, values and knowledge they have gained from plays will provide the foundations for the next phase.

This essay will endeavour to define play, it will explore the significance of different types of play in a child’s learning and development journey. It will consider Vygotsky’s theory of development and also look at some opposing theories, these will then be linked to contemporary practice. This essay will also highlight the need for child-led and adult-led play and explain why there is legislation in place to support a child’s right to play.

Play is an essential part of every child’s life and it is vital for the enjoyment of childhood as well as social, emotional, intellectual and physical development. From birth to age three, play encourages self-reliance and helps children problem solve and learn about the physical world and how it works. Play also helps build relationships between a child and his parents, caregivers, and teachers. During play, adults have the chance to observe a child’s behaviours and participate in his activities. It is a great way to gain insight about a child’s perceptions and feelings, and how they understand the world. Children learn by leading their own play, and taking part in play that is guided by

Play also has other beneficial elements to it as well, like it reduces stress and conflicts. Because it has these beneficial qualities, therapist will sometimes use it to help children cope with the difficulties in their lives. There are also different types of play that children participate in. The first type is sensorimotor and practice play. The book defines this play as “behavior by infants to derive pleasure from exercising their sensorimotor schemes” (Santrock 500). During this play they are exploring their environment and surrounds and learning how things work. They will sometimes participate in practice play, which is where they repeat a behavior over and over again until the master the skill they are working on. Practice play does decrease with age because the child has usually mastered it by then. The next type of play is the pretense/symbolic play which is when “a child transforms aspects of the physical environment into symbols” (Santrock 500). This type of play usually takes place between 9 to 30 months old and this is when they start using their imagination to play pretend. This is an important type of play because it helps children develop cognitive skills like balancing social roles, testing reality-pretense distinction, and role taking abilities (Santrock 500). Social play is the next type of play and it is simply just how children interact with their peers. This play could be conversations, games, and actual physical play. Next is constructive play and it is a “combination of sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic representation” (Santrock 500). This play usually takes place in preschool and elementary aged children. This type of play for example is drawing outlines of objects instead of just smudges with their fingers. The last type of play is games, an obvious type of play for children. This play is defined as “activities that are engaged

Tassoni 2005 state that ‘Play is crucial to development and appears to be something that nearly all children appear to do instinctively’.

Studying how children learn to play is in fact intense as a university student because there are many different types of play to learn such as social play, which involves the child interacting with other children in a play setting where children learn and begin to become fond of the social rules such as sharing, giving and taking objects and also being cooperative with other children. Through social play children are able to learn about what is in the world around them also developing their social, emotional, physical, literacy and numeracy skills through play. Children are able to learn about themselves, their environment, the people involved in their lives and the world around them. When a child plays, he or she learns to

In terms of the physical domain, research substantiates play as a valuable contributing factor to a child’s development. Play supports the development of both fine and gross motor skills within the physical domain. Children fine tune their ability to run, jump, skip, climb, and throw through

Play facilitates children at a very early age to engage & interact with the world around them. It allows them to imagine, believe, create and explore a world they