Jennifer Avila 2 December 2012 Play Essay
The most important part of a childs development and the basis for all the skills that a child needs to develop properly is play. It is the foundation for a childs learning. There are many child development centers that have play based philosophy. Maria Montessori is a very popular play based school. Others, such as Froebel, the father of kindergarten argue that play is an important part of learning. Play is important for the childs cognitive, physical, social and emotional development. Children need cognitive development to create critical thinking skills, physically developed to be healthy, social skills in order to properly communicate as they grow, and they must develop emotionally so they may express their feelings. Play develops each of these domains in a positive way. There is no right or wrong way to play, and every child can play in his or her own way. To some people children at play just means children running, screaming, stacking blocks, playing dress-up but play is much more than that. Play is the basis of all learning. Maria Montesori best known for the Montessori schools that are based on a play based philosophy, argued that, children learn from first hand experiences-by observing and by doing (Feeney et al., 2013 p.165). According to Froebel, play [is] an essential part of learning, for example, yarn balls, blocks, wooden tablets, geometric shape and natural objects, these are all part of a child's play that encourage the use of many domains. For example, using yarn balls can serve as cognitive development if the child decides to string something, blocks can be used to develop social skills if the children build together, geometric shapes can be used for a child to build something they are afraid of, and natural objects can be used as physical development if it is something in nature where the children are using their body's. Children play everyday, while they play they learn the most important skills they need to know for their futures. Cognitive development is the most important skill that must be developed. Cognitive development means developing problem solving skills. Children need problem solving skills and they need to develop critical thinking skills. Playing with building blocks is a great example of how play can help with this development. According to Feeney (2013), as the children solve the problems of balance and symmetry, thats inherent in construction, they plan and communicate as they build. A great
example of this is three year old Audrey. She is playing with her blocks and is using a triangle as the base of her building. She is becoming upset because the blocks will not stack. She decides to try a rectangle as her base and notices that the blocks are no longer falling over, and it enables her to stack 6 blocks. When she was building the tower she was improving her critical thinking skills by figuring out what the problem was. She learned that by switching the triangle with a rectangle she was then able to stack the blocks. Developing physically is also very important. Children are able to develop physical skills trough play. Their coordination and strength are enhanced as each child lifts, carries, and stacks blocks; small muscles are developed as they decorate the building; and sensory awareness is gained as they handle the blocks, feel the texture, and note the grain of the wood (Feeney et al., 2013 p.417). Jaime, a three year old, is outside during free play and is kicking a ball and running. He is laughing and seems to be having fun. It may just seem like Jaime is just playing, but in reality, he is developing physical competence, both efficiently and comprehensively. The activity he has chose to play is building strength, stamina, and skills that are needed to succeed (Feeney et al., 2013 p.414). Children learn best when they are healthy, strong, and coordinated, which is why physical play is so important. Play is important because it teaches communication skills which are necessary for proper emotional development. With play, children learn how to initiate social interactions with their family, friends, and peers. Children learn many social skills such as, awareness of others, cooperation, turntaking, and social language (Feeney et al., 2013 p.415). According to Feeney (2013) by the time children reach their second birthday they can have dramatic play skills, such as feeding toys. By the age of four or five, they can pretend to be workers in a store and costumers. Jazmine, a 24 month old, is having her afternoon snack with her favorite toy doll. Before she takes a bite of food, she gives a bite to her doll. She says yum, and then takes a bite herself. She continues going back and forth between herself and the doll until her snack is gone. This play scenario shows that Jazmine is showing awareness of the doll because she is feeding her. This is Jazmine showing dramatic play skills.
Meanwhile, four year old Julian is riding his bike. He gets off to get a firefighter hat and tells another child, four year old Chase, lets be firefighters! As they begin to play Julian gets off his bike to save someone. Chase tells him, I wanted to save them! Julian replies, its okay Chase, you can save the next person. Chase complies. Through this play, both Julian and Chase develop social competence in sociodramatic play. This leads to the development of cooperative attitudes and behaviors (Feeney et al., 2013 p.415). Being developed emotionally is crucial for children. The reason it is important is children at play devise and comfort challenges and anticipate changes. In the process they master their fears; resolve internal conflicts; act out anger, hostility and frustration; and resolve personal problems for which the real world offers no apparent solutions (Feeney et al., 2013 p.415). According to philosopher Freud, play was identified as a primary avenue trough which children express and deal with their fears, anxieties, and desire (Feeney et al., 2013 p.415). During outside free play time, Abrianna, Elena, and Arielle were playing together. There are two lines of chalk drawn on the floor and Abrianna says, we have to go on this bridge so the alligators do not get us! She walks through stumbling and saying, woah! Ahh! That was a close one!. She makes it to the other side and says, come on Elena! It is your turn! Don't fall in or the alligators will get you! All three girls continue to do this repeatedly. During this play the girls are expressing their fears to falling in to the alligators and are helping each other succeed in getting to the other side. By observing this kind of play, a caregiver can learn a lot about a child. Although, it may just seem that play is just children running having fun. Children are learning much more valuable skills trough their play. Cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development are the most important domains a child needs to learn in their first years of learning. It is important to support each child in their play as play is what children are born to do. With proper materials children will make good decisions in learning what they want to know and experiencing new things.
Bibliography Feeney , S.. Christensen, D. Moravcik, E. (2013). Who who am i in the lives of children?. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson education, inc.
