Childhood Education : Early Childhood Special Education Essay

Play in the sense of emotional maturity, it teaches the child how to build relationships through self confidence and self esteem. When a child occupy themselves in physical play this helps the child with with their physical coordination. A child’s cognitive development through play helps a child express their feelings and thoughts along with cultural and social understandings. Practice alphabets, numbers, colors, and shapes.

Being an early childhood/special education major, I decided to observe during my field experience hours in a preschool class at Prairie Children Preschool, in Aurora. In this classroom, I observed a blended classroom, with ten out of fifteen children having IEPs. Thus far, I have visited three times and have completed a total of nine hours in the classroom. One opportunity I have in my placement is to be able to observe in the classroom on Fridays, during which only students enrolled in the Preschool for all program. Through my field experience I was able to observe Ms. Vanessa Seppa in the blended classroom. I have observed her work with children towards goals that have been set. Only having experience in early education made me curious as to the difference from preschool to the upper grades. One of my relatives was a substitute in a special education class and connected me to Vanessa Villalobos, who is a special education teacher in middle school.

Play is the way children learn and is a word that is used to describe the different activities behaviours that children participate in, this would concur with “Vygotsky’s (1978) social constructivist theory that suggests that play promotes both mental and social development for children” (cited in Goulding, 2016, p16). Early childhood educators such as Froebel and Vygotsky have always promoted the importance of the outdoor learning environment. According to Vygotsky (1978), children learn through interacting with the environment and through social interaction with others. Social constructivist theory, believes play is important for the growth of a child’s cognitive emotional and social development and

The relationship between play and learning seems obvious to many child professionals and parents, and yet there are still lack of understanding surrounding the importance of children's play. Some people believe that children need to "work" not play, and that playing serves no useful purpose in a learning and development environment. This is surprising considering that play, with its high levels of motivation and potential enjoyment empowers children (as well as people

According to Lev Vygotsky, in the article Play: The Work of Lev Vygotsky (2017), when children partake in play they are building their language and cognitive development

Early Childhood Education illustrates the teaching and care of children in other environments outside of the home. Early childhood centers on the development of all children no matter their gender, race, abilities, or ethnic orientation and gives knowledge of early childhood learning process, which entails values, culture, desires of parents for their children, and especially a child’s need for knowledgeable functionality in society.

“Play is developmentally appropriate for primary-age children and can provide them with opportunities that enrich the learning experience” (Copple & Bredekamp 2009). Early childhood education holds two main focuses; a child-based focus and a family-based focus. Early childhood education has positive outcomes on the child through their learning experiences, and their growth and development. Based on the family, the results of early education happen through the communication that the family has with the educators and by the encouragement they get from within themselves, and also from the educators.

This research report presents an analysis of and conclusions drawn from the experiences and perspectives of two educators that work in the early childhood setting. The main objective is to identify key elements and issues in relation to the families, diversity and difference. In particular how an early childhood educator implements, different approaches to honour culture and diversity, and to advocate for social justice in an early childhood settings. As such, it allows an insight into the important role that families and their background plays in the everyday lives of the children and educators within early childhood settings. In today’s ever-changing growing society it is essential for educators to be flexible to the

Play contributes to developing the whole child and to the development of each part of that child. Play is beneficial in many areas of a child’s development. This includes a child’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive areas of development. The benefits of play, offer children an opportunity to be creative, form bonds with other children, and allows children to experience their natural environments. “Play fulfills a wide variety of purposes in the life of the child” (Weissman & Hendrick, 2014, p. 61).

Before exploring the benefits of learning through play, it is important to gain an understanding of what play is. It is difficult to define exactly what play is. Play can vary amongst different types of activities, social contexts, and also age groups. Free, imaginative play is vital for normal social, emotional and cognitive development. Play is important for children’s learning as it helps them to become socially adept, managing with stress and developing cognitive skills such as problem solving. Through play children explore social, material and imaginary worlds and their relationship with them. There are many different reasons why children play, sometimes they are discovering or learning new things. Play can be a way of building or strengthening relationships with either other children or adults. Children more often play simply for the fun and enjoyment it offers them. Many theorists have tried to make a concrete definition of what play is.

There are numerous theories of play and countless theorists, from Freud and Spencer to Piaget and Vygotsky, who have studied play in relation to what it is and what it does for the child. This essay will outline the definition and value of play and the importance of how it can foster the child’s learning in regards to these theorists who studied the effects in great detail. It will discuss the how the environments constructed by educators can impact play and the theories of learning relating to the quote “play and learning are inextricably woven together ...” Ebbeck and Waniganayake, 2010, p. 5).

Playing may seem like nothing when in reality it introduces children to explore their senses. It develops into a positive approach for learning. When children are seated next to each other, they may communicate and discuss similar interests. Children learn through play as “They discuss, negotiate and strategize to create elaborate play scenes; take turns; and work together toward mutual goals” (GreatSchools). Through play, children develop skills for later use in grade school. For example, physically handling objects refines motor development that can later transform into coordination for writing skills. Cooperative play enhances language skills as it heavily relies on patience in trying to understand one another and correctly using words into structured sentences. With this practice, children will able to communicate and express themselves more

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.

he location chosen to do the twelve hours of service learning participation was the Early Childhood Learning Center. Interviews to the agency occurred on November 8th and 9th. The Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC) is a child development and early childhood education center. ECLC was established the fall of 1970 to provide Early Childhood Education Majors an opportunity to familiarize themselves with children and their characteristics. ECLC is a great facility that not only helps children but also helps the volunteers gain knowledge in the workforce of working with children.

Early childhood education is one of the most important policy topics out there. Research has proven that the early years in childhood is a critical period for opportunity to develop a child’s full potential; as well as form academic, social, and cognitive skills that determine not only success in school but also their entire life (The White House). The right to a free, public education is guaranteed to all children in the United States. Early education is voluntary, and therefore some children are not given the opportunity to reach their full potential.