Childrens Play. Cache unit 4
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CACHE Unit 4 Children’s Play
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D1. Identify 3 different settings where children might play:
. Home
2. Adventure Park
3. Pre- school setting
D2. State the typical age range and the stage of play of the children who might play in the setting:
Home would be for 0-16 years because they would be there a lot of the time and would have to play to develop there skills. This is co-operative play which is children work together to gain something in the end.
Adventure Park setting would be for 4+ years because something’s could be too challenging for a very young child and they could hurt themselves. This is associate play were children play and start to interact with other children and develop much needed skills.
Pre- school setting would be for 3-5 years because that would be the age range for children in pre – school setting. This is parallel play the children will play along side other children but not interact with them.
D3. Describe 1 type of play that may take place in each setting:
In the Home setting, children will do pretend play, they could play superhero play were they pretend they are Superman or Spiderman; because they have all their toys and different objects around them so they can talk with the toys and this develops their language and communication skills.
In the Adventure Park, they will do physical play, they could play TAG and run around a lot; when they run around and climb up and over things. They would gain strength, stamina, fitness and co-ordination. They also learn social skills when talking to other children.
In a Pre-school setting, children will play domestic play. This is they act out what they have seen their parents do e.g. Ironing or cooking; They will act out ironing, cooking and anything they see their parents do. They would gain social skills and communication. They also gain fine motor skills, which are skill of the hand and fingers.
D4: Describe 1 activity or experience in which children might demonstrate each type of play:
. Pretend play is when they play games like mummies and daddies. This helps them develop social skills. They also develop communication when they talk to each other and explain.
2. Physical play is when children run around and be active. They develop muscle strength and growth. They also develop fitness and stamina. They also gain important social skills for later life.
3. Domestic play is playing washing and ironing etc. They develop social skills and communication skills which helps them when they grow up. They also gain language skills as they talk to others or talk out loud.
D5. Identify a theory of play related to 1 type of play:
Theories about play:
Jean Piaget, Physical Play.
Introduction
Many years ago children were considered little adults and that play was a waste of time. As time progressed different psychologists and other theories have studied play for hundreds of years and different theories about how children learn and develop through play.
Piaget:
* Born in 1896
* Developed theories that have been influential, although they have been challenged over the years. At 10, he wrote his first book.
* Piaget was the first to say that when children play they can make discoveries for themselves without being taught or shown.
* He noticed that play changed as children’s thinking developed.
* Piaget claimed that play was for pleasure and while it allowed children to practice things they had previously learned, it didn’t necessarily results in the learning of new things.
* In other words, play reflects what the child has already learned but doesn’t necessarily teach the child anything new. In the view, play is seen as a “process reflective of emerging symbolic development”.
Relating Piaget theory to play to types of play
* In physical play, Piaget’s theory states that each stage is built on the knowledge and experience of the one before and it was throughout play that children gained an understanding of their world (Tassoni P.153, 2007)
For example, at first a child of 2 years attempts to ride a tricycle and gains experience, later when he/she turns 3 years, he/she uses that experience and will start riding a bike.
Piaget felt that children would need to have experience of different materials, equipment and activities so that they could form their own ideas.
Piaget’s theory of play and how it is related to creative play.
* Age 2-7 years
* Stage – pre-operational stage – this stage helps children to develop learning process.
* Type of play – creative play
A child will be able to pretend things and mimic different actions, he or she will be putting the first small steps forward to using various symbols as a learning process.
The cognitive benefit for the child using creative play e.g. using paint and drawing, putting marks on paper will help him or her to learn about communication.
Creative play also encourages language opportunities for the children to develop including fine physical skills e.g. using properties of materials through cooperative play.
D6. Give 1 example of a play activity for each of the chosen settings that will provide a challenge and help the children to understand risks:
- In the Home a child could be playing with a dolls house and this could be a challenge because the doll or item may not go in the right place, this could be a risk because they could drop the house and hurt them. They could also trap their fingers in the doors of the house or even eat the doll and choke on the doll parts.
- In the Adventure Park, an obstacle course could be set up to include a route over a high climbing frame. This could be a challenge because they might not be able to climb over it. This could be a risk because they could fall off. They could fall off and cut their knee or leg and if no adult is around they could get in a lot of trouble for leaving the children alone.
- In the Pre- school setting, a dough cutting task could be a challenge because the child may not have the ...
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- In the Adventure Park, an obstacle course could be set up to include a route over a high climbing frame. This could be a challenge because they might not be able to climb over it. This could be a risk because they could fall off. They could fall off and cut their knee or leg and if no adult is around they could get in a lot of trouble for leaving the children alone.
- In the Pre- school setting, a dough cutting task could be a challenge because the child may not have the equipment that they want to use; this could be a risk because they could cut themselves. If they cut themselves they could cut themselves deep and need to go to hospital and the adult in charge may get in a lot of trouble.
D7: Diversity and Inclusive Practice
Diversity is the differences and uniqueness separating one person from the next. Inclusive practice is the integration of everybody. Here are some laws and companies who promote diversity and inclusive practice:
. SEN- Special Educational Needs
2. UNCR- United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
3. ECM- Every Child Matters
4. DDA- Disabilities Discrimination Act
Diversity means that people come for different culture. Children come from a variety of backgrounds and family structure.
It is reflected in many ways
. Language. The different accents and different countries have many languages.
2. Culture. Different people have different ways of doing things
3. Beliefs. There are many different religions out there and we need to know and understand them so we can value the person/people.
4. Care needs. Children have different care needs; some could be disabled or have a behavioural and learning disorder.
Indeed Tassoni (2007) stated that diversity is about understanding that children come from a variety of backgrounds and family structures. It is also responding positively to the differences and valuing all people.
Activities that promote diversity:
. Create a multicultural banquet. This shows children that there are many different cultures which have different foods to eat and it is good to expose children to them.
2. Make a poster of people hands in the different skin tones. This exposes children that there are different skin tones not just there one and it also makes them understand that even if people are a different colour are still the same.
3. Promote different religions. This shows children that there are more than 1 religion is this world and they are all the same even if they have a different worship place or have different name for their God.
4. Visit community centres. This exposes children to different people and their families. It shows them that people from different religions and cultures live right near you and it encourages them to play and be friends with them.
Inclusive practice means the integration of children with disabilities into regular classrooms. It also means the way you meet children and family needs in such as way as to not make them feel excluded.
Article 3 of UNCR (The UN Convention on the right of the child) states that all children have to be included in all activities, no one is to be discrimination is allowed.
INCLUSION IS A LAW!!!!!
Disability discrimination Act 1995: Law designed to end discrimination. By Law, children’s services are required to show they are planned and acting to remove barriers to discrimination.
Disability rights commission: set up in 2000 to oversee.
Children’s act 2004: States that our aim should be to promote access for all children.
In order to meet children diverse needs, and help all children make the best possible progress, practioners should:
* Provide a safe and supportive environment, free form harassment, in which the contribution of all children and families is valued and where racial, religious, disabilities and gender stereotypes and all expressions of discrimination or prejudice are challenged.
* Value the fact that families are all different that children may live with one or both parents, with other relatives or carers, with same sex parents or in an extended family.
* Work with parents to identify learning needs and respond quickly to any area of particular difficulty.
* Plan opportunities that build on and extend all children’s knowledge, experiences, interests, skills and develop their self- esteem and confidence in their ability to learn.
* Use a wide range of teaching strategies, based on children’s learning needs.
* Provide a wide range of opportunities to motivate, support and develop children and help them to be involved, concentrate better and learn effectively.
* Plan for each child’s individual care and learning requirements, including the additional or different provision required to meet particular individual needs.
* Audit how accessible the setting is for children who use wheelchairs or walking frames or who are learning English as an additional language and take action to include a wider range of children.
* Work together with professionals from other agencies, such as local and community health services to provide the best learning opportunities for individual children.
* EYFS (Early year’s foundation stage) help practioners to working with young children to provide challenging expectations and relevant, developmentally appropriate learning opportunities for babies and children.
Practical ways of valuing and encouraging diversity are:
Provide positive images; books and displays should use positive images of children with disabilities and from different cultures.
Children need positive images of gender roles; men caring for small children and women mending cars.
Arrange activities to encourage children with special needs to participate fully with other children.
This means providing ramps for wheelchair users; a corner with 2 walls for support, a chair with a seat belt, or a wheelchair with a large tray across the arms.
D8: References
http://www.kidsdevelopment.co.uk/PiagetsCognitiveDevelopmentTheory.html (13/3/11) Date accessed
http://www.funderstanding.com/content/piaget (13/3/11) date accessed
Tassoni, P. (2007) Childcare in Education. Heinemann. England.
C1: Explain the resources that will support each of the play activities:
Playing with the dolls house in the Home, can be a risk and a challenge because the children are challenged with putting things in small places. This play can be a risk because they could eat or chew the dolls and swallow the small parts of the toy.
Playing in the obstacle course in the adventure park, can be a risk and challenge because the children may not be able to climb over something. This can be a risk because the children could be playing and slip and fall off the climbing frame and hurt themselves.
Playing with dough in the pre-school setting can be a challenge and a risk because the children may not have to equipment that they want to use. This can be a risk because they could cut themselves on the plastic utensils provided.
B1: Explain how children benefit from play activities that provide challenge and helps them to understand risk:
How do children benefit from play activities that provide challenge and help them to understand risk:
* Children will push themselves to a limit of their capacities and encourage them to progress.
* Children gain confidence and more independence as their self-esteem increases.
* Taking risks can have a positive benefit in terms of the children’s development, social and emotional needs.
* Children learn vital skills needed for adulthood a d gain experience needed to face the unpredictable nature of the world.
* However, if children are deprived of risk play, this can result in a huge lack of experience to carry out tasks effectively leading to inability to cope in stressful situations and as a result, leading to poor social skills.
* Risk play contributes to creativity in a child. Children will develop a sense of balance if equipment set is high.
B2: Explain how the adult can encourage exploration and investigation through play:
What is structed play?
* Structed play activities are planned and led by an adult.
* The idea of structed activities is that children are able to learn while exploring and playing.
* Structed activities help children to use materials and explore concepts that they might not otherwise do. Children may practice different skills e.g. counting pretend money.
Adult- directed activities
* It is where the adult is leading the activity or play and children gain experience and skills by following instructions from the adult.
* It is important that the activities are interesting and “…right for every child’s development level” (Tassoni, p. 176, 2007).
* They do this to find out what stage of learning the child is at.
Adult- initiated activities
* These are play and activities that have been planned by adults but not led by them.
* Adults- initiated activities where adults provide the materials and equipment so that children can learn from using them.
* For example putting out dough with scissors is likely to encourage children to cut the dough and so develop their cutting skills through play.
Child- initiated activities
* These are play and activities that children organise for them. These types of play are sometimes called free play.
* Children make the decisions and choices.
* Activities initiated by children are considered to be good for them because they help children to be creative, solve problems and be independent.
Adults can encourage exploration and investigation through play by doing the following:
* Providing them with interesting materials for the children to explore. We should not just provide the same materials all the time; we should bring in different kinds of fabrics/materials so the children learn about all the different ones.
* Visit scrap stores and select interesting materials for the children to play with. Scrap store materials are very cheap and cheaper if you buy a lot at a time, they are old materials so they are being recycled with is good for the planet.
* Most of the children interested in building materials, such as drain pipes and sand. These can be put outdoor for the children to play and explore. The reasons why are to keep the children entertained so they are not bored. This links into Piaget’s theory of ‘….. Children should have access to different materials to feel and play with….’ (Piagets Theory).
* Children like building things. This is another way for them to explore and investigate materials. Putting out fabric, pegs and cardboard boxes will enable children to build their own places.
* Equipment and resources both indoor and outdoor – children will need access to an adequate number of interesting materials to explore and investigate.
Indoor and Outdoor Play types:
Outdoor
Indoor
Sand pit
Sand play
H20 Play
H20 Play
Trampoline
Lego
Tricycle
Building blocks
Football
* Adults have to provide space for children to play in, but we have to provide the materials but let them decide what they do with it.
* We need to give children choices adults can’t tell the children what to do all of the time because children needs to have a say in what they want to do at times.
* Through planning and providing support to children and encouragement from adults – children are often are keen to explore and try new things but may not feel that they can because it might be the first time that the child is doing this activity and might not have much confidence in what they are doing so it is important to create a positive atmosphere when children are doing things, encourage them that they can do it.
-A1: Discuss how the identified theory of play helps understanding of children’s play:
Theories about play:
Jean Piaget, Physical Play.
Introduction
Many years ago children were considered little adults and that play was a waste of time. As time progressed different psychologists and other theories have studied play for hundreds of years and different theories about how children learn and develop through play.
Piaget:
* Born in 1896
* Developed theories that have been influential, although they have been challenged over the years. At 10, he wrote his first book.
* Piaget was the first to say that when children play they can make discoveries for themselves without being taught or shown.
* He noticed that play changed as children’s thinking developed.
* Piaget claimed that play was for pleasure and while it allowed children to practice things they had previously learned, it didn’t necessarily results in the learning of new things.
* In other words, play reflects what the child has already learned but doesn’t necessarily teach the child anything new. In the view, play is seen as a “process reflective of emerging symbolic development”.
Relating Piaget theory to play to types of play
* In physical play, Piaget’s theory states that each stage is built on the knowledge and experience of the one before and it was throughout play that children gained an understanding of their world (Tassoni P.153, 2007)
For example, at first a child of 2 years attempts to ride a tricycle and gains experience, later when he/she turns 3 years, he/she uses that experience and will start riding a bike.
Piaget felt that children would need to have experience of different materials, equipment and activities so that they could form their own ideas.
Piaget’s theory of play and how it is related to creative play.
* Age 2-7 years
* Stage – pre-operational stage – this stage helps children to develop learning process.
* Type of play – creative play
A child will be able to pretend things and mimic different actions, he or she will be putting the first small steps forward to using various symbols as a learning process.
The cognitive benefit for the child using creative play e.g. using paint and drawing, putting marks on paper will help him or her to learn about communication.
Creative play also encourages language opportunities for the children to develop including fine physical skills e.g. using properties of materials through cooperative play.
Many adults working with children didn’t understand out the importance of the play and play types that children all need to discover and learn from. In addition to this lack of knowledge and experience the adults also didn’t have experience or knowledge of what kind of activities they would need to set up in order for the child to develop and gain vital skills for later life. This made some children have really bad social skills as they got older and didn’t want to interact with others just wanted to be alone and not talk to anyone.
Since then, people have all accepted his ideas about play and now put them into practice every day, they now understand how children react to play and how they develop into stronger and better people for society. We also have seen how children benefit from play every day. Many people have tested children to see how they act before and after play and saw great results and every setting that looks after young children have to contain and plan play activities at least once a day and this improves they child’s development of physical development, social development and emotional development
There are huge benefits for children; they learn how to play together in a way that is positive. They also learn basic social skills which then develop into bigger more developed skills. They also gain friendship from play, they play with the same group of children day in – day out and they understand how each other act and behave from day to day play. They also understand how others grow as people through day to day play. Many children have positive benefits from play as they gain friends, many different skills that they would need for later life. The children need play to gain many vital skills for later life.
I personally think play is as important for children as they gain vital and needed skills for later life. If children don’t get to play with different things in different places with different people the children don’t socialise which means they don’t develop as the other children around them. They also become drawn from others and don’t want to interact with others especially people they don’t know.
A*: Reflect on the role of the adults in providing activities and supporting children’s play:
Play is very important ‘…..every child should experience all types of play in their lives…’ (Jean Piaget), for children because they develop many skills such as:
* Fine motor skills; fingers and hands
* Gross motor skills; Body and limbs
* Social skills; communication
* Team work; working appropriately with others
When children play the role of adults is very important because we can not tell what the children do we have to let them decide what they want to do, but if we think they are in danger we can stop or change the activity that they do. Here are some examples of what we do in children’s play:
* Value children's play and talk to children about their play. Adults often say "I like the way you're working," but rarely, "I like the way you're playing."
* Play with children when it is appropriate, especially during the early years. If adults pay attention to and engage in children's play, children get the message that play is valuable.
* Create a playful atmosphere. It is important for adults to provide materials which children can explore and adapt in play.
* When play appears to be stuck or unproductive, offer a new prop, suggest new roles, or provide new experiences, such as a field trip.
* Intervene to ensure safe play. Even in older children's play, social conflicts often occur when children try to negotiate. Adults can help when children cannot solve these conflicts by themselves (Caldwell, 1977). Adults should identify play which has led to problems for particular children. They should check materials and equipment for safety. Finally, adults should make children aware of any hidden risks in physical challenges they set for themselves.
There are many types of play, they are:
* Creative play; it is very important for children to experience this play type because this allows the child to draw or play what ever they chose to do, they are not influenced by an adults, this is also child-initiated play.
* Pretend play; is when children want to dress up and be people like superman or Spiderman or Cinderella. This play is not really. Children use their imagination to fuel this play.
* Physical play; is when children run around and use their gross motor skills, they also gain these skills every time they do physical play. They gain strength, stamina and fitness when they do physical play.
* Manipulative play; is when children use their fine motor skills and they would also gain them from this type of play. Manipulative play develops the sense of coordination, challenging their little fingers to follow the lines or use their tools properly. Painting and drawing are 2 examples.
* Discovery play; is when children start to understand the world around them. They also learn about how the world works and this is very important because if they don’t learn this then they won’t know who the world works.
* Social and emotional play; is when children learn social skills by talking to others, talking to teachers and their parents. Emotional play is a child will use play to express their personal feelings at that time. They will do this in many different situations if they feel they can not say it in words.
* When we observe children at play, we should not interfere with what the child does; we also have to keep a record of what the child does. This lets the child develop their own skills and discover things for themselves.
* When we plan activities we have to take in account the needs and support the children may need. E.g. disabilities or emotional needs. When we collect items for play we need to see where they have come from and if they are suitable for the setting.
* When we set out a play area we need to see if all the children can access the area and play without difficultly. When we become involved with play we can’t tell the child what to do, we have to let them make their own choices. When we ask questions we have to ask the children what level they are at and create an activity around their own personal needs to push them forward in their personal development.
Play is important because it helps children to develop personal skills; ‘…play is important…’ (Jean Piaget).
Relating Piaget theory to play to types of play:
* In physical play, Piaget’s theory states that each stage is built on the knowledge and experience of the one before and it was throughout play that children gained an understanding of their world (Tassoni P.153, 2007)
For example, at first a child of 2 years attempts to ride a tricycle and gains experience, later when he/she turns 3 years, he/she uses that experience and will start riding a bike.
Piaget felt that children would need to have experience of different materials, equipment and activities so that they could form their own ideas.
Piaget’s theory of play and how it is related to creative play.
* Age 2-7 years
* Stage – pre-operational stage – this stage helps children to develop learning process.
* Type of play – creative play
A child will be able to pretend things and mimic different actions, he or she will be putting the first small steps forward to using various symbols as a learning process.
The cognitive benefit for the child using creative play e.g. using paint and drawing, putting marks on paper will help him or her to learn about communication.
Creative play also encourages language opportunities for the children to develop including fine physical skills e.g. using properties of materials through cooperative play.
* Children need to have play with others and by themselves to develop all kind of skills; e.g. social skills, communication skills, vital skills for later life and language skills.
Cache Unit 4
