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Fundamentals of Play
The Benefits of Play
Children learn by engaging in meaningful experiences. Experiences which are meaningful to their life, ability, culture, age and which they find interesting.
Children learn through play. Play is the vehicle that carries children's development further. As an early childhood/primary teacher (of more years than I care to mention) , I cannot emphasise enough, the importance of play. They will learn far more, far quicker and with enjoyment, in a structured play environment, than by trying to 'teach' them letters, and reading and maths in a formal setting. Inappropriate formal teaching, too early, may cause frustration in children, and subsequently lower their self image and 'turn them off' learning. Often this frustration, when children can't complete tasks which in reality are not appropriate to their level of development anyway, results in behavioural challenges and other ongoing problems. Children need to be children. 
They discover through their 5 senses – called sensory motor (or multisensory) learning. By exploring and manipulating ‘actual’ (concrete) materials, children develop an understanding of many concepts which they 
will use in life. It is important to stimulate children with toys of different colour, texture, size, shape, smell and sound and to allow their imaginations to guide their learning. What a child discovers for him/herself is of most benefit because it has personal meaning for them. It allows children to experience success, playing at a level appropriate to them and give time for learning to happen.
Play develops children’s self esteem. A positive self image influences children’s ability to learn. They feel confident to experiment with new materials and learn to understand that ‘things going not quite to plan’ are a part of learning. This translates to being able to feel confidence in a new situation.
Language development is stimulated in play scenarios. Children develop a ‘bank’ of words to use to describe objects and situations in a time when their language is developing very quickly. The more experiences they are exposed to, the richer their language will be.
Cooperation (playing with other children/adults) also enhances learning. Children learn from each other, and also importantly from the role models of the adults interacting with them. When cooperative interactions are encouraged, children refine their language and thinking and develop positive relationships.
There are different types of play:
- Functional Play where children use repetitive muscle movement, with or without objects (eg. running, hammering)
- Dramatic Play (pretend, fantasy, make-believe, symbolic) where children manipulate objects or materials (eg. blocks, wood, collage) to make something.
- Socio-dramatic Play where children use their imagination and role play to transform the self and objects and to satisfy needs (eg. pretends to be a vet and look after a sick animal)
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Constructive Play (play games with rules) where children recognise, accept and adapt to predetermined rules that are goal oriented.
(With thanks to Lorraine Corrie)
Stages of the development of learning and play
Children's learning develops in stages.
From the age of birth - 2 years, children's primary learning activity is Exploration. They are focused on their direct physical world - what is around them. They need the stimulation of brightly coloured things to look at, touch, taste, hear and smell. During this stage they use body language, gesturing with their arms and legs. They importantly are also beginning to develop oral language, so it is important to talk to them constantly, and to model body language and use facial expressions for them to copy, and to help them feel secure and loved.
From 3 year - 5 years, children's primary learning activity is Sociodramatic Play. By now, children have a small 'bank' of experiences they can draw upon, things like stories they have been told, and images they have collected as they have gone about their daily lives. They continue to use body language and have more control over their movements. Their oral language has become more spontaneous and they have begun to develop imagination as they play with materials. This imaginative play is what we term sociodramatic play, and is very important in the development of 'scripts' they will use in their lives.
It is very important at this stage of learning that children are given opportunities to explore their world. Taking them to the supermarket, filling the car with petrol, going to different shopping centres, all simple everyday tasks from which children learn procedures and appropriate behaviours (scripts) that they may then use in their lives. Children learn that there are different behaviours which may be appropriate for one scenario, but not another eg. they can run around and climb in a playground or their back garden, but that is not appropriate behaviour for a busy carpark, or shopping centre or in a bus. The way people talk to a doctor, or receptionist is different to the way people talk to their family members or close friends. To give children the best opportunities for their development, take them to different parks, museums, art galleries, fun parks, on buses, ferries and trains and talk to them about what they are seeing, doing, feeling.
Children need many opportunities to socialise with other people - both adult and other children. This will help them develop an understanding of cooperation, sharing and how to interact with others appropriately.
This is also an important time to model reading and introduce simple maths concepts in an informal way. Read to children daily and they will develop an understanding that stories in books follow a sequence from front to back, that the front of the book is the beginning of a story and the back of the book is the end of the story. They will see that the cover has a title, an author, illustrator and a picture about the story. From pictures they can learn to predict what the story is about, and what might happen on the current or following page. They will also see that the story is made up of text, that we read the text from left to write and top to bottom. The text is made up of characters that are grouped in different ways. These concepts are basic to their success, later in being able to read themselves.
Similarly, whilst playing, children can learn basic mathematical language as parents count objects they are playing with, talk about tall and short, heavy and like, take away some blocks. Adults model the language and children will begin to associate it with the task.
- From 6 years - 8 years, children's primary learning activity is Investigation. Now children are more ready for formal, more structured learning. They have a larger 'bank' of experiences on which to base their decisions and have begun to classify their world, see the patterns and how it works. They are still using body language and spontaneous oral language, but now can be introduced to structured oral language, choosing the best word, making it more interesting etc. It is important that they are still involved in dramatic play, but they can begin to be involved in more structured dramatisation. They now have the background necessary to develop literacy and numeracy in a more formal manner.
Of course, children develop at different rates and in different ways. What is important, is to let children develop at their own rate. Don't push them because you feel that they should be doing more than they are demonstrating, and don't hold them back if they are showing areas of strength that could be developed. Just remember they love to play and they do learn whilst they are playing.
Children's play also develops in social stages.
It is very interesting to watch a group of children and observe the different interactions. Many factors may influence the rate at which they develop competence in these stages, such as number of siblings, contact with other children in playgroups etc. As children develop more social competence, they will be seen to move back and forth in the social stages as is appropriate to their current situation.
Unoccupied Behaviour - children watch the activities of others, play with their body, get off and on chairs, walk or glance around the room. - Onlooker Behaviour - children observe, ask questions and talk to other children but do not enter the play itself. They are aware of the play and stand within speaking distance to hear and see what is going on.
- Solitary Play - children play with their own toys by themselves and are not involved with other children.
- Parallel Play - children may use toys like another child, but they do not share. They play alongside or nearby, but not with another child.
- Associative Play - where children play together in a loosely organised activity. Their conversation revolves around asking questions and they use each other's toys. There are some attempts to control who is allowed to join the group.
- Co-operative Play - which involves complex social organisation with shared common goals. Children take turns and have a strong feeling of belonging (or not) to the group. It involves division of labour, differential role-taking and organisational activity - eg. football game, playing board game.
Learning domains
Children's learning involves development in different domains.
- Physical Domain - involves whole body activities both indoor and outdoor. Children develop body awareness, balance, coordination and locomotor/non-locomotor skills such as running, dancing, catching, kicking. They also develop fine motor skills - manual dexterity, eye-hand coordination, sorting, matching, cutting, threading etc.
- Cognitive/Language - strengthening perceptual development - visual, auditory, tactile, smell and taste. Enhanced by playing with a wide range of materials in a variety of settings (See Fundamentals of Play links on home page).
- Social / Emotional - develops social relationships and social skills - joining and leaving games, keeping the rules, taking turns, sharing, making and keeping friends.
