The Act Of Playing And Learning

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.

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.

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

In this assignment I plan to explain how play helps to improve the development of children and young people. Play is extremely important for the development of children. It is important that from a young age children play with things like toys and even with other children. Between the ages of 0 – 3 is when children develop the most. Through play children can improve their fine and gross motor skills by using toys such as shape sorters and using musical tables which have buttons and things to turn. This helps to develop fine motor skills. Gross motor skills are developed through crawling and learning to walk. If children have toys that are spread out whilst

Play builds strength and stamina. Beginning in infancy, children try to gain physical control of their proximodistal extremities, such as their arms or legs. To to this, infants strive to reach for manipulatives. Play also drives the child to explore, discover and master skills. Running, jumping, climbing, throwing balls, and riding bikes, not only develops gross motor skills, but also develops perceptual-motor coordination.

The terms “play”, “learn” and “teach” are commonly used in the early childhood sector. This essay attempts to define and interconnect these terms to produce a holistic understanding of how play can be used as a medium to help children learn.

By taking advantage of the children's high interest and engagement in different areas of play, educators can plan for play based activities that encourage learning and development in children. In order to do this the teacher needs to set up an environment that stimulates various play activities. Providing the children with a multitude of materials and props for different activities, will give them the freedom of choice to choose what they wish to use and how they want to use it. There must be a period of time structured into the daily schedule that will allow for play based learning activities, and reflection on them. Children can learn not only by engaging in play, but by discussing what they were

165 and Wood & Attfield's 1996, p.76.) It encourages children to develop the ability to control their actions and emotions and adjust them to the recognized social norm and in addition to that, play helps children to prepare themselves to become an active member of a culture and their own family by interacting with the people closest to them, such as parents and other family members (Vygotsky, as cited in Brennan, 2012, p.162.) As a result of this, their social and emotional development is advanced from an early stage.

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 the business of childhood, allowing your child free rein to experiment with the world around him and the emotional world inside him, says Linda Acredolo, professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis and co-author of Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk and Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love. While it may look like mere child's play to you, there's a lot of work — problem solving, skill building, overcoming physical and mental challenges — going on behind the scenes. Here are some of the things your child is experiencing and learning, along with ideas on how you can help boost the benefits of his play. Play builds the

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-

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. .

Everything a child learns is learned through play. It is essential to a child's development. Playing is experiencing and it is through experience that children learn.

Alice Sterling Honig, author of an article “Play: Ten Power Boosts for Children’s Early Learning”, states that “children gain powerful knowledge and useful social skills through play” (p.126). Honig, who believes that play is essential for young children’s development, points out ten ways in which children can learn through play activity.

When you think of play you don’t really think about or realize how important it really is in a child’s life. It consists of five elements, and these elements are the make-up and the meaning of play. The first element is that it is pleasurable and enjoyable. This means it must be fun! In order for it to be considered play, there must be a fun and enjoyable element to it. Play also has no extrinsic goal which means it is engaged for