Learning Through Play

Many have argued over the years that learning through free play lacks structure and therefore has little place in the education system (Pound 2005).  Thankfully not everyone agrees and the majority of educationalists understand that when activities are carefully planned, play can be detrimental to children's learning.  

Numerous theorists including Piaget, Vygotsky, Parten and recently Bruce have studied play and through studies such as the Plowden report, its importance has been reinforced and play has now become a central part of our Early Years education (Anning et al. 2010).  Whether children play independently, in a group, take part in competitive or representational play, they are always learning and through play can achieve the seven learning outcomes laid down by the QCA in the Curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage.  

I consider the main advantage of play to be the fact many children don't realise they are learning while they play as they are having fun.  By choosing what they want to do they will concentrate harder to achieve their desired result which will often be different to how an adult plans an activity out.  Play time is a happy time as it is unstructured and exciting but throughout play children develop social, cultural, physical and cognitive skills.  A safe and secure area will give the child the opportunity to develop their independence, have a chance to take risks, learn from their mistakes and settle their curiosity through discovery.  They should be able to move around, with a sense of freedom, improving their motor skills and confidence and become more physically able (Bennett and Henderson 2013) which can be seen in the below video.  

During play children creatively use their imaginations, show control, act spontaneously, develop language and understand the importance of rules and social boundaries. Adults will scaffold a child's learning and they will play with other children and through sustained shared thinking problem solve together.  Using previous knowledge and role play they will imitate real life behaviour, helping them to understand the wider world.   It is crucial children continue to find these activities fun and as Pound (2005) proposes there should be minimal interference from adults so that the children continue to have ownership of their play and it will feel child led.  

There can be drawbacks to play and schools have been criticised for not concentrating on literacy and numeracy enough during the school days.  I see the idea of establishing role play areas as a fantastic way of combating this.  Throughout a term an area either indoors or out, will be created which resembles a real life setting and then becomes the topic for the term.  Reading, writing and mathematical skills can be incorporated into the role-play as well as in the classroom afterwards and including the children in the planning reduces the risk of them becoming bored with the area and gives them ownership.  You can see a good example of this being put into practice and gain ideas of how to implement role play by watching the video below.

Reference List

Anning, A., Cullen, J. and Fleer, M. (2010) Early Childhood Education Society and Culture. London: Sage.

Bennett, V. and Henderson, N. (2013) Young Children Learning The importance of play. In Ward, S. (2013) A Student's Guide to Education Studies. Abingdon: Routledge.

Pound, L. (2005) How Children Learn. Leamington Spa: Step Forward.