Explain The Role Of Social Play In Pre School

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.

Through play they are able to learn their environment and it helps with learning. In the area of language development preschoolers are developing well as they learn more words and are very verbal. Children are more vocal about their surroundings, feelings, and other individuals. It is important to pay attention to speech during this time as most delays in language are noticed during this stage of development. “It is important to encourage talk at this time, and to seek advice from a specialist if any delays are suspected.” (Christina J. Groark, Stephanie K. McCarthy, Afton R. Kirk, 2014) Socially children are developing as they show interest in playing with other children. “Children are driven by the desire to be liked and place the utmost importance on friends.” (Christina J. Groark, Stephanie K. McCarthy, Afton R. Kirk, 2014) It is during this period they children learn how to share and respect other feelings. Children learn how to follow rules and know their boundaries during this stage of development. Each stage of development is essential in how well children are able to enjoy the exciting time of preschool.

Sara Smilansky is a Developmental Theorist who has identified four types of play: Functional play, Constructive play, Dramatic play, and games with rules. Smilansky says that Dramatic play is the most mature type of play because this is the time where children start to understand their surroundings and imitate what they see others doing. The research on play focused on sociodramatic play and the impact it has on children’s learning. In Smilansky’s book ‘The Effects of Sociodramatic play on Disadvantaged Preschool Children’, she says that “…a form of voluntary social play activity in which preschool children participate”.

Cooperative play - Cooperative play occurs in the later preschool years. Children are able to take on roles and sustain them for the duration of the play. The group of children have agreed upon goals and roles for the play. In this stage of play, leaders and followers emerge within groups. Roles are delegated and tasks distributed within the group. There is a common goal and children will play together in a more complex

1. Francke, J., & Geist, E. A. (2004). The Effects of Teaching Play Strategies on Social

In the toddler classroom, the children interacted with each other, however many of them were more interested in playing and exploring on their own. The children enjoyed free play at learning centers, story time, and outside play during my observation. The toddlers preferred parallel play in which the children used similar toys in similar ways, but did not interact with each other. For example, when one child began playing with the kitchen toys in the dramatic play center, soon all of the children began playing with the available plastic food items. However, the children were more interested in showing the teachers what they were doing and

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

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

Through play, children are also able to form relationships with their peers, therefore developing socially. They are able to “learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills” all of which are important skills in a child’s world as well as the adult world (Ginsberg 183). This is especially prevalent in young school age children, who have had relatively few social encounters without the presence of their parents before entering school. These young children will often make life time friends by sharing a popular treat at snack time or borrowing a color crayon to another child who has broken theirs.

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.

From the moment, a child is born they start to learn to respond and adapt to the people that are around them. Although it may be hard to see at times, babies are very social creatures and love to be held, cooed to and smiled at. When a baby is around two months old they will spend the time they are awake watching what is going on around them and may even show the first signs of a smile. As the baby reaches three to four months their smile will start to turn into play and they will start to enjoy and recognize ‘face-to-face’ games i.e. ‘peek a boo’ or being tickled under the chin. In terms of social development in relation to the first 4 month of a baby’s development, ‘The foundation years’ have said that by encouraging and introducing play at an early age, it will help them learn how to play with others and

When we teach children the language to use in order to either invite other children into their play or to enter into other children’s play, we often make the assumption that by knowing the right words to say, children should be able to initiate play. But to successfully get others to play requires the abilities to share ideas, negotiate, compromise, and to move on when told, “I don’t want to play with you right now.” Some children need direct teaching of these skills, while others may need reminder activities. For those children who appear to be competent in initiating play, these activities

Play is usually a natural activity in early childhood and has significant importance in early childhood special education. Play assists in enhancing the children social competence, creativity, language development, and their thinking skills. Play is usually the key vehicle for the developing of language, social skulls in young children (Rogers ET all. 2009). Moreover, it serves as a functional behavior which contributes to the life quality of the children. .

| * May quarrel with other children about who gets to play with a particular toy * Uses pretend play as a way of initiating friendship * May still use transitional objects to overcome fears * Enjoys cooperative play * Learns to share with others * Makes other meaningful relationships as their social world expands

Interactions between young children foster preschoolers’ language development and communication skills. Peer play and sociodramatic play also prevent and reduces behavioral and social problems.