The role of the adult in children's play.

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The role of the adult in children’s play.

The purpose of this essay is to identify roles adults can take within children’s play and how these roles support the children and influence learning.  Children come from diverse backgrounds and bring to early years settings their own previous learning experiences and interests.  Adults within settings have a responsibility to provide support to these children, encourage participation in a wide variety of meaningful experiences and build reciprocal relationships through meaningful interactions.  This combination gives children the opportunity to gain confidence in their own abilities and become increasingly more independent in their learning and communication, a concept relating to the Ministry of Education’s (1993) New Zealand Curriculum Framework Principle of encouraging students to become independent and life-long learners.

For adults to extend on children’s learning and development and promote self-esteem, effective adult-child interactions are required.   Research work carried out by Tizard and Hughes (1984, cited by Coltman & Whitebread, 1996, p.23), suggest a strong relationship between self-esteem and school achievement.  In creating early years settings, which foster adult-child interactions, support can be given by adults, in ways, sensitive to the children’s individual needs and capacities so that self-esteem is developed, which in turn benefits future learning.

Docket & Fleer (1999) suggest three roles adults can undertake to support children in their play, these being, ‘Manager’, ‘Facilitator’ and ‘Player’.  ‘Managers provide indirect support by planning suitable play spaces, time for play and meaningful resources and materials for the children to interact with.  Adults can clarify to the children what things are available and encourage participation in a variety of experiences.  ‘Facilitators’ mediate amongst the children, promote equity and interpret play.  Through mediation adults demonstrate effective ways to communicate, in the hope children adopt similar behaviours themselves.  ‘Players’ provide direct support by playing with and alongside the children, with the aim of encouraging play and extending on learning and development.

Complex play scripts enable children to develop a wide range of skills, including those of problem-solving and language development and adults need to ensure sufficient time for play is available so children can explore at a pace that they feel comfortable with.  Christie & Wardle (1992, cited by Dockett & Fleer, 1996, p.173) suggest play sessions of at least 30 minutes.  Unrushed environments enable adults to identify current interests, interpret play and suitably interact to extend on learning.  

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The structure of the play space directly influences the play that occurs and the types of interactions.  Unsuitable spaces may cause adults and children to invest more energy dealing with disturbances than focussing on the positive outcomes of play.  By watching and talking to the children about their play, unsuitable spaces can be identified and adapted so children are able to engage in more undisrupted play.  Adults can encourage play by displaying equipment attractively in accessible ways and further support children by clarifying what is available.  Equipment that invites group participation may be more effective if placed where adults ...

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