Physical, cognitive, social and emotional wellbeing of children through play
Discuss about the Building Friendship Through Playful Learning In Early.
The act of the play is important for the development of the physical, cognitive, social and emotional wellbeing of each and every child and youth. It is the means of the child for living and understanding the life. Learning by the means of playing is essential among the children for gaining experiences and learn by the means of experimentation and exploration. Play in case of children furthermore makes a significant impact on the social wellbeing and the status of mental health (Degotardi & Pearson, 2016). The importance of play towards the development of the children’s knowledge and lives has also been recognized by the United Nations (Doherty et al., 2013). The essay illustrates the notion of the act of play in the context of the potential of learning and the aspects of learning by the factors such as creative thinking and Physical activity for the identification of their importance in the development of the child in their initial years.
Play enables children to enhance their skills that contain different movement, discoveries, use of different language and concepts and involvements in the environments (Wyver et al., 2012). The stated play of the assignment illustrates a play scenario of a preschool. Dylan, Oliver, Toby and Lachlan are the children of the playschool ranging of age between 4 to 5 years. The play scenario stated the morning time when the boys plays outdoor games in their institution premises. The two chosen topics for the analysis regarding the factors influencing the learning potential of the play experiences are the creative thinking and the physical activity which contributes towards the development of the 4 boys of the institution. Creative thinking can be defined as something that is viewed in a new way (Van Hoorn et al., 2013b). It is the ability to think out of the box (Verenikina et al., 2016). In the above context, the activities of the children showed their critical thought process. The children in the play plans to build up an imaginary sausage shop which they see in their day to day life and initiated to put up a play to act like the cooker and the butcher after constructing the imaginary shop. They firstly worked collaboratively to carry out the bricks, large block and the logs from the verandah of their institution to the busy outside area which was about 20 meters away. The strong eagerness to build something with the blocks and the logs were immense among the children and they together with efficient teamwork moved the blocks from the verandah. Ethan directed the others to use the wheelbarrow for carrying the larger blocks and they somehow successfully managed to shift all the raw materials. Another important factor that contributes to the analysis of the learning potential in this context is the physical activity. Physical activity is the movement of body with the effective usage of energy (Adolph & Robinson, 2015). The notion of physical activity is extremely important among the children since it helps the children to maintain a healthy body weight, strengthens the bones of the child, decreases the risk of various types of diseases and problems related to health and boost up their self esteem (Schmitt et al., 2017). In the above context, the 4 boys who planned to construct a shop by the means of the bricks and the logs in the outdoor area included loads of hard work. The tireless movement of the children between the two locations resulted in the formation of real drops of sweat on their brows and they got exhausted after this tremendous physical activity. This activity was beneficial for the children to boost up their encouragement to build the shop and made them more flexible (McDonald, 2018). Ethan wanted to construct an airport initially but agreed with the decisions of the other boys to build a shop like the one the other boys made a week before. The boys started working together for constructing the structure of their shop. From trailing with different shapes of bricks for the wall to discussing about the requirements to construct each and every detail inside the shop, the 4 boys started the construction in a well balanced manner. The boys continued to gather their additional resources with the aim to build up a sausage shop from which they can gate lots of money. The children imagined themselves to be the real shop holders and their critical thinking enabled them to play certain roles like the cooks, cashier and more. This particular process is essential since it helps children to develop and stimulate their mind to think something out of the box, to dream big and to grow up the urge to achieve something good in their life (Broadhead, 2010). They imagined some of the small blocks in their hotplates as sausages and pretended to sell them just like the scenario of a real meat shop. The activity vividly portrayed how the 4 boys liked the mechanism of a meat shop and imagined themselves in a real scenario. Furthermore they acted as the real sellers by shouting for sale of their imaginary sausages, which represents their notion of critical imagination and thought process. Children from other units also gathered and participated in the play quickly as the customers. The educator encouraged their role play and their hard work of constructing their own sausage selling shop and exchanges a few stones with their imaginary sausages. Furthermore to boost up their selling role the educator asked for the change and Ethan quickly responded with some of the stones as a token for exchange. This act of him portrayed his level of intelligence and critical thoughts that developed while playing the meat shop. With an unconfident writing skill and unusual grip, Toby still managed to write the sign of their shop with the assistance of the educator which showed the level of enthusiasm and the urge to gain more knowledge and skills among the child management .
Learning by means of playing
The act of sausage shop by the four children illustrated two of the most important factors namely the process of critical thinking and the hard work by them. The play helped in stimulating the learning experience of the 4 children and they drew satisfaction of their emotions too (Frost, Wortham & Reifel, 2013). The play of the construction of the sausage shop provided a platform to them by which they learned and developed certain skills like collaborative work, decision making and works sharing. It helped them to blossom their capabilities and wishes by effective interaction and learning from their actions management .
Conclusion
Learning with the means of playing is essential for the development of the students of the preschool and the educators play a very important role in understanding and valuing the holistic procedure in which the children’s play and learn. Being an educator and witnessing the above scenario of play by the 4 boys two of the different ways that can be suggested for active enhancement of the learning procedure in the children’s play includes effective selling procedure and innovative decoration of their constructed shop. The leaner can suggest a procedure of effective selling method which will result in developing the calculation and arithmetic learning among the children. By calculating as $2 for each sausage, the educator can suggest the boys consider each $ as 1 stone and calculate the number of sausages they are selling on that basis. This will help in developing their arithmetic skills and encourage them to develop a keen interest in the mathematics. Secondly, the educator can also suggest the children to use leaves of the trees and the pages of their old class copies for decorating and making small objects for their shop. The educator can also sit down and teach them the arts of origami so that the children can develop the relevant skills of using natural resources and re-use of old paper in their act of shop construction management.
References
Adolph, K. E., & Robinson, S. R. (2015). Motor Development. In L. Liben & U. Muller (Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science (7th ed., Vol. 2: Cognitive processes, pp. 113-157). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/lib/MQU/reader.action?docID=1895801&ppg=141 [Read only pp. 120–124; From “Stereotypies and Flails” until “Variability: Problem and Promise”]
Broadhead, P. (2010). Building friendship through playful learning in the early years management . In J. Moyles, The Excellence of play (3rd Ed., pp. 216-228). Maidenhead, England: Open University Press
Degotardi, S. & Pearson, E (2016). Infant play: how interactions build and support relationships. In M. Ebbeck and M. Waniganayeke (Eds.), Children’s play in early childhood education: Facilitating learning in diverse contexts (2nd ed., pp. 76-95). Sydney, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Doherty, J., Brock, A., Brock, J. & Jarvis, P. (2013). Born to play: Babies and toddlers playing. In S. Degotardi (Ed.), ECH113 Play and inquiry in early childhood: Unit readings (pp. 56-81). Sydney, Australia: Pearson Education Limited. (Re-read pp. 74-76)
Frost, J.L., Wortham, C.C., & Reifel, S. (2013). Computers and technology as emerging toys. In S. Degotardi (Ed.), ECH113 Play and inquiry in early childhood: Unit readings (pp. 188-210). Sydney, Australia: Pearson Education Limited. (Reprinted from Frost, J. L., Wortham, S. C., & Reifel, S. (2012). Play and child development (4th ed.). Boston, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.) (Read only pp. 199 – 207, from ‘Playing in virtual contexts’ to chapter end)
McDonald, P. (2018). Observing, Planning, Guiding: How an Intentional Teacher Meets Standards through Play. YC Young Children, 73(1), 31-35.
Schmitt, K. L., Hurwitz, L. B., Duel, L. S., & Linebarger, D. L. N. (2017). Learning through play: The impact of web-based games on early literacy development. Computers in Human Behavior.
Van Hoorn, J., Nourot, P. M., Scales, B., & Alward, K. R. (2013b). Play as the cornerstone of development: The literature. In S. Degotardi (Ed.), ECH113 Play and inquiry in early childhood: Unit readings (pp. 212-232). Sydney, Australia: Pearson Education Limited. (Read pp.227-232; From ‘Play and social-moral development’ to chapter end)
Verenikina, I., Kervin, L., Rivera, M. C., & Lidbetter, A. (2016). Digital play: Exploring young children’s perspectives on applications designed for preschoolers. Global Studies of Childhood, 6(4), 388-399.
Wyver, S., Tranter, P., Sandseter, E.B.H., Naughton, G., Little, H., Bundy, A., Ragen, J., & Engelen, L. (2012). Places to play outdoors: Sedentary and safe or active and risky? In P. Whiteman & K. De Gioia, (Eds.). Children and childhoods: Contemporary perspectives, places and practices (pp. 85-107). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
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