When planning and providing play opportunities for children and young people, the goal is not to eliminate risk, but to weigh up the risks and benefits. Play is important for children’s well-being and development. It’s also important to provide some risk taking challenging opportunities for all children and young people to encounter or create uncertainty, unpredictability, and potential hazards as part of their play and growing up.
Play is satisfying to the child, creative for the child and freely chosen by the child.
The practitioner in an early years setting supporting children’s play learning and development is extremely important, as play helps stimulate the child’s brain, supports their needs on an educational level, as well as helping them with social difficulties such as building relationships, developing them and helping them gain confidence. Many people believe that a child learns best when they are motivated, such as Fredrich Froebel. He believed that children benefitted from all types of play. The McMillan sisters believed that outdoor play was extra important as they studied children who played and slept outside and discovered that they were the happier and healthier children in comparison to those who only played inside.
Also it is important that children have the opportunities to experience risk and challenge play as this is important for children's and young people's play and learning. It is important that children and young people are given the opportunities for risk and challenge play as it will help give children a better understanding of what is safe and unsafe such as if they was to touch something hot they will know not to do it again because they will know they will burn them self. Some parents do not let their children take risk and challenges as they think its to dangerous for the children. When practitioners provide opportunities for risk and challenge play it is important that it is taken place in a safe environment. Also when risk and challenge
There are many advantages to child-initiated play. Children’s emotional development is particularly supported because children are able to make their own choices. They also gain independence skills as they can help themselves to resources. This type of play helps children to be creative as they have to develop their own ideas of how to play indoors and outdoors.
Play is essential to every part of children’s lives and is important to their development. It provides the children with different ways of doing things children will want to explore and learn new things.
“Play is a process that is freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated. Children and young people determine and control the content and intent of their play by following their instincts, ideas and interests in their own way and for their own reasons. The child chooses when and how to play and this is seen as a biological drive, essential to health and well-being.”
8. Evaluate different approaches to managing risk during children and young peoples play. An approach to managing risk could be to talk to those children involved with e.g. play fighting and if they got too carried away I would stop them from playing together. Another approach would be to provide crash mats if children are playing on an indoor climbing frame, I would place them underneath to steady their fall so they don’t injure themselves too badly.
Modern-day, stresses and nerves – and, it ought to be said, an open-air world which truly is less youngster amicable than ever before – has prompted a hazard opposed a culture that discovers expression in oppressive well-being and security arrangements which neglect to measure the advantages of a given movement against the dangers included. Suppliers of kids' play areas, in a similar manner as numerous open administrations, are in dread in case of even minor scratches. So they progressively blunder in favour of alert, putting intensely in effect retaining surfaces and gear that thoroughly meets well-being gauges yet regularly needs genuine play value.Free and unstructured play in the outside lifts critical thinking abilities, centre and self-restraint. Socially, it enhances participation, adaptability, and mindfulness. Enthusiastic advantages incorporate diminished animosity and expanded happiness.Children will be more quick-witted, better ready to coexist with others, more beneficial and more joyful when they have normal open doors for nothing and unstructured play in the out-of-entryways. In a current study a third of kids believed that there was a leaf that can soothe a nettle sting; as per the review, more than seventy-percent of the youngsters that participated in the research have never climbed a tree. Abominable! Ask anybody more than forty to relate to you their most loved recollections of adolescence play, and few will be inside. Less still will include a grown-up.
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
“Current theories about inclusive play revolve around the idea that play is important for life and that all play workers should be committed to creating play environments that are inclusive and that offer multi-sensory experiences for all children. Play environments should ensure children and young people can become involved in imaginary play and can help develop motor activity. They should also allow interaction in a safe environment. Play is seen as the language that can bring children of all different abilities together. All children and young people have the same basic needs and go through the same development stages, even though they may not all go through them at the same pace: some go through some stages more quickly than most, while others may become static in their development for a while. None of this should prevent access to any setting. Through play with other children they develop social skills and learn about behaviour, communication and friendship. Play is the tool for practical learning
Play provides a safe place for children to learn, with no feelings of failure. I noticed the play learning environment structures the environment by providing several activities a child can choose from. Providing choices allows the child to stay with an activity to improve on their skills, and master the play experience with minimal frustration (Hemphill et al, 2014). Children need to build on their resilience, and have the confidence to try again. Children consider risks in their choices where they are able to develop autonomy, interdependence, and a sense of self.
Play contributes to children’s “physical, emotional and social well-being” (Else, 2009, p.8) and through play, the child’s holistic development and well-being is being constantly accounted for as is it led by the individual. The child decides what s/he wants to do and does it; it is
Play is a way for children to learn about their environment and how interaction occurs within. It is through trial and error that children are able to create options; follow their own interests and show “independence in thought and actions” using their knowledge and understanding (Moyles, 2005, p.3). Children develop resilience though play. However for a number of children can experience stressful occurrences during their lives and play can often be restricted. Therefore the play worker’s role in supporting children’s play is a crucial measure towards children's development. For those that work with children require the dexterity to prompt and contribute to children’s play, which can be seen as a principle aspect of therapeutic alliance.
Relating this to practice today, there is a wide diversity of current issues on how outdoor play is implemented today. The reason being is children are not able to have as much freedom as the other children did before as there may be potential risks or dangerous happenings occurring however risk assessments are carried out so that it can become more child friendly. Children don’t need to be confronted with hazards and any potential danger however it is our duty to allow children to experience risk and challenge and help children undertake this and rise to challenges more often in outdoor spaces. (Bilton, 2010:27)Relating this to practice today, there is a wide diversity of current issues on how outdoor play is implemented today. The reason
Play is the foundation stone of children’s healthy and productive lives (Oliver & Klugman, 2002) and is also a significant means of child’s learning and development (Zigler, Singer & Bishop-