Importance of two
different types of play in a pupil’s development
As
children learn and develop their social, cognitive and communication skills
through play, we cannot underestimate the importance of play sessions and the
effect of different types of play in the pupils’ development. It might not be
so obvious but ICT offers a wide range of potential play activities for
children that helps to develop their attention, creativity and skills to
discover new things. Playing games on the computer is not necessarily a silly hobby
as long as the child has a daily time limit spent with this kind of activity.
Playing computer games can help the pupils to focus their attention, respect
the rules, give their best when under pressure, or even expand their knowledge
if the game involves e.g. answering quiz questions. The Internet offers
exciting new possibilities in play, e.g. having a chess game with another child
at the other end of the world. Children can develop their more creative side
with drawing programs, using a printer to get a hard copy of their work and a
chance to display it. Access to a digital camera may give them an opportunity to
record a role play, even shoot their own little movie. The possibilities are
endless, as we can see, and young children are able to beat adults in learning
to use any ICT equipment. Therefore it is essential that the teaching staff is
well trained and prepared in this area.
Playing
with ICT equipment will not substitute the crucial influence of real life
friends and real life play. Role plays help children in their cognitive and
social development, support them in getting a better understanding of the world
around them and have a positive effect on their communication skills. For
instance, when pupils “play school” they build on their existing knowledge to
make sense of the world. Each child assumes the role of the teacher one after
the other and they correct each other’s spelling mistakes when writing on the blackboard.
They also demonstrate planning skills when they create their little classroom
by moving around some chairs. Acting out the routines of the school and the
typical teacher behaviours will not only help them to understand and accept
them rules of them world around them but also develops essential cognitive
skills (mental planning, self-monitoring and evaluation, problem solving) that
help them in learning any subject.1 Role play has to be encouraged
in schools and nurseries because this is an excellent opportunity for children
to become active participants in their learning. In a dedicated role play area
in school pupils can even wear costumes and use props to make the imagined
situations more real life-like. For example, when acting out shopping in a
supermarket from a pre-written shopping list, children can practice Mathematics
skills when counting out the three apples and five bananas that they need to
buy. They learn the practical use of Maths that is essential in everyday life.
Also in a role play situation they are not bound by fear of getting an answer
wrong like in a regular classroom situation. Knowledge acquired this way will
also stick with them more effectively because they are more motivated and
enthusiastic about this kind of activity than doing exercise sheets.
Interaction during the role play is especially beneficial for shy and
introverted students as these activities can reduce their fear of communication
and teach them why social interactions are important in our lives.2
How to support and encourage pupils in play
Effective
planning and encouragement of pupils by adults during play sessions is
essential so that children gain as much benefit as possible from these
activities, whether in the classroom or outdoors. Teaching staff should support
all aspects of the play, knowing when to intervene or when to get involved. The
teaching assistant can help in the provisions of the play by finding out what
resources or activities the children would prefer. Playing football is a simple
enough example for a play activity, but it still requires certain provisions
from the TA. It might be necessary to transform the environment to better
facilitate to play, i.e. remove any disturbing items from the impromptu
football pitch. It is crucial to ensure safety at all times to minimise the
risk of any injury. Before starting to play football, the TA has to make sure
that all the players understand the rules of the game and also respect those.
The TA will have to intervene in the play acting as a referee when one of the
pupils is breaching the rules or risking their peers’ safety with their actions.
There has to be a set of agreed punishments to deal with situations like this,
e.g. sending the problematic child to the “bench” for a while. Furthermore, the
TA has to ensure that all the participants can take their fair share of the
game, and intervene if one pupil is behaving in a dominant way and trying to
exclude others. Such a problem can be tackled from the other side as well: by
encouraging the shy or introverted children to stand up for themselves and do
not let their louder peers to take over the whole game. It is not easy to find
that exact point when it is desirable to intervene in the children’s play and
the approach to it mainly depends on the actual situation. It can also happen,
that the pupils ask for help from the TA when they get stuck in the game
because of a disagreement or because they need additional resources or help
(e.g. in a football game the ball might fly over the fence and they need an
adult to collect it). Therefore the TA always has to be near, observing how the
play is going and available in case the children need assistance. Since one
important feature of the play is to give the children opportunity to extend and
develop in a safe and relaxed atmosphere, it is advisable for the TA to
intervene in the play only if it is really necessary or asked for. The best
scenario is if the play session is carried out without any adult intervention
or even if there is any, the play resumes easily into its natural flow. It is
also important that the adult has to be able to bring to play session to a
close once the allocated time is up and the pupils have to move back to normal
classroom activities. It is easier to close the play time if the pupils had
been made aware of the length of this session beforehand. Cleaning up is
following the play session: children have to learn to tidy up after themselves,
put the resources back to their places or return them to the TA. This is an
effective way to teach children to always leave a clean and tidy environment
when they are finished with an activity.
Benefits for pupils
of exploring and investigating
Exploring
the environment is an innate instinct in babies and young children that help
them to develop their physical and cognitive skills. When children reach school
age, we should not forget that letting them explore and investigate the world
through play is a useful addition to traditional learning activities. Children
make use of their senses, mind and bodies to gather information and form ideas
and theories about the world around them. Exploration of their environment and
interaction with other people, adult and children, help them to refine their
ideas, therefore it is rather beneficial if the teachers can plan play
activities for the children to allow them to be creative, extend their
knowledge, make discoveries and collaborate with peers in solving problems. When
exploring their physical environment, children will learn about the materials,
plants and animals and develop their sense of time, space and shape. Adult can
help children to extend their knowledge about the world by taking them on trips
and calling their attention to the different phenomena in nature and
environment. By collecting objects and natural materials, e.g. shells, leaves,
stones, seeds, flowers etc. children extend their knowledge about these things,
and by encouraging them to sort and order these objects according to weight,
shape or size, we will also help them to develop their mental skills. We can
call their attention to patterns and sounds in the natural environment, e.g.
the sound of rain, animal sounds, traffic sounds etc. to make them more aware
of these phenomena so that next time they recognise them. If the trip is to a
farm, children will have the opportunity to get to know animals and explore the
source of the food that we buy in the supermarket. The aim of these activities
carried out with the direction of the adult is that the children can develop
and use their skills and strategies for observing, questioning, investigating,
understanding, and become little explorers themselves. We should support the
children in making connections and associations between their already existing
knowledge and the new information, and use different sources in gathering
information that serves their improvement, e.g. supporting them in using maps
and the globe to find destinations for longer trips, and real or desired
holidays will support their geographical knowledge and curiosity to explore new
places. We can also direct them towards new sources of information that they do
not think about themselves, especially if we do not know the answer to their
question either. We can encourage them to look it up in a lexicon or on the
Internet, and they will learn that where they can find and explore new
information if they wish to extend their knowledge on a certain topic. It also
leads them towards independence in problem solving: to go and find their own
solutions using trusted sources of information. As their knowledge and confidence
grows they will look for new ways to represent and express their ideas in a
creative way, so it is essential that we provide them with adequate resources
for drawing, painting, creating sculptures or any kind of work of art they feel
affinity to. Children need encouragement and space, indoors or outdoors to be
able to dive into a topic that interests them. If we provide them with the
necessary materials, they will learn by themselves through their little
projects. E.g. if a child is interested in plants and the way they grow, we can
prepare a little garden for them outside, where they can tend to their own
plants and monitor their growth. We have to teach them how to take care of the
plants by watering them and getting rid of weed in the garden, but eventually
we have to encourage them to do it themselves. Besides acquiring immense useful
knowledge on the life of plants, their reward will be the tomatoes that they
grew themselves and they can boast to friends and family about their
achievement. This experience also improves their self-esteem and their
confidence that they are able to carry out tasks that may seem to be hard in
the beginning. Creating a scrapbook, writing a diary or taking pictures of the
project is not only a permanent record of their achievements that can be shared
or looked back on even years later, but also another way to support their
cognitive development. If they are presented with numerous and diverse
possibilities to explore new things, children will have a positive attitude
towards their own learning, being independent and reliable in making decisions and
taking responsibility for their own education. They will have to confidence to
try and solve problems for themselves and perseverance to cope with the
frustration of failure on the way to success.3
External
sources:
1
“Why Is Play Important? Cognitive Development, Language Development, Literacy
Development” Education.com
2
“How does role playing help my child?” KalliKids
3
Exploring and Thinking
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