Learning Through Play

Many practitioners believe that children learn best through play. This is due to play and learning being closely linked together. Learning through play is an extremely important part of the Foundation Phase due to the early years being when the children learn the most.

There are many benefits when children are given the opportunity to play and learn at the same time.

These are a few benefits:-

 • Children are willing/look forward to the activities that they have been given to do.
 • Whilst learning through play, the children don't feel like they are working therefore are more interested in the activity, resulting in greater learning development.
 • The children have a higher level of concentration and interests in the activities and this will reflect on their developments.
• It increases their motivation and the effort they put into doing the activity.

 

Parten (1932) 

Like other theorists, Parten (1932) has attempted to connect the children's cognitive and social ability to the way children play at different stages. Below are the stages of social play that researchers still use today.

Solitary Play - 0-2 years - This stage is when children play alone.
Character Play - 2-2.5 years - This is when children observe other children around them as they are playing. Often the child will alter the way they are playing to what another child is doing.
Parallel Play - 2.5-3 years -This is the stage when a group of children are playing near each other and using the same toys/ materials, but are still working independently.
Associative Play - 3-4 years - This is when the children are playing the same game but are not working together or communicating with each other.
Cooperative Play - 4 + years - This is the stage when children are playing together. Together they decide what game to play and what roles they are playing.

Developments

Play is not only a big factor in helping children learn, but it can be extremely beneficial for developing skills such as:-

Physical Skills - Gross motor skills (crawl, walk, climb) and fine motor skills (handling small objects, pencil).
Cognitive Thinking - Can be developed by play because activities such as puzzles can help the children problem solve. Cognitive concepts can also be developed because as the child explores the outdoor and indoor world their knowledge expands.
Language Skills - Play can also help the children develop language skills due to constant interactions with other students.
Social Skills - Learning through play has an emphasis on group work in order for the children to gain social skills. By working together, the children learn how to compromise, share and co-operate with one another, resulting in learning the rules of society from a young age.

The idea that children learn socially was one of the most emphasised ideas that Vygotsky believed.

References

http://www.niched.org/importance_of_play.html 

http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=620 http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/CANCER/pedresource/pedres_docs/ChildrenLearnThruPlay.pdf