Chapter 20

 Students will be able to:  Compare and contrast types of play.  Explain how play affects physical, mental and social-emotional development.  Utilize play enrichment activities.  Construct lesson plans using play.

 Improves the muscles and nerves & helps the heart and lung systems.  Improves balance and coordination.  Active children who play often are more likely to maintain a healthy weight.

 Logical concepts  Through play, children learn concepts such as classifying objects, number concepts, and conservation.  Symbol systems  Children select the most important aspects of an experience, and make props that are symbols for objects in the real world.  Helps prepare for the more abstract written and spoken language symbols.

 Language  Infants: Babbling, recognizing sounds  Toddlers: Repeat simple words  Preschool: Try out new rhythm and sound patterns.  School-age: Try rhythm, jingles and other forms of language sound patterns.  Humor& Creative Thinking  Humor is mental play, and cannot begin until the child is well underway with his or her thinking skills. Usually begins around age 2 or 3.  Through play, children try new things, which improves creative thinking.

 Children become aware of others through play, which results in the development of trusting relationships.  Preschool and school-age children begin to play more with peers, which teaches concepts such as rules, rights and property, sharing, and settling disputes.  They learn acceptable and unacceptable behavior and skills in teamwork and being a leader.  Through play, children learn to detect others’ feelings as well as work out many of their own feelings and problems.

Stages of Play AgePlay with ObjectsPlay with People From a few months to school- age Practice play—Babies explore objects by picking them up or tracking them with their eyes. Play activities are repeated. Solitary play—Babies ignore other children nearby and may view them as objects. Onlooker play—Toddlers watch others play, but do not join in. Parallel play—Children play near other children and play with the same toys. They note that others have the interests & skills like their own. However, there is no real interaction among the children. From age 3 through elementary grades Symbolic play—Children engage in fantasy play. They pretend they are someone else. They project mental images on objects. Associative play—Two or more children play at a common activity and share ideas. However the play is not well-organized. Peaks at age 9 or 10 Rule play—Children make rules to govern their games or carefully follow the rules already established. Cooperative play—Two or more children share common goals and play complementary roles.

 Active-physical play  Use of gross motor skills  Children learn about the space around them, objects in this space, and movement of their body. Names for movements and positions in space take on meaning.  Children test and improve many physical skills.  Improves reaction time and balance  Helps children become more graceful

 Manipulative-constructive play  Use of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination  Helps children’s ability to mentally picture objects and make abstract models of what they see.

 Imitative-imaginative play  Children learn to imagine/picture themselves as other people or objects.  Helps improve memory, language and decision-making and leadership skills  Children can express fears, resentments and hostile feelings through play therapy with a trained counselor to help resolve certain problems.  Imitative play 1 st stage of imitative-imaginative play Begins as children begin to use symbolic thought. Toddlers and young preschoolers engage in imitative play for very short periods of time, but tend to repeat the same imitative play symbols and actions over days, weeks and months.

 Imitative-imaginative play  Dramatic play 2 nd stage of imitative-imaginative play Involves role-playing with more than one child. Each child’s role is independent of the others’. Often involves several behaviors associated with a role  Socio-dramatic play 3 rd and final stage of imitative-imaginative play Group plays with a theme. Each child is assigned a special role.

 Language-logic play  Form of mental play most common in school-age children  Language and word games Improve vocabulary and language skills as well as use humor.  Logic games Require much thought about actions (checkers, chess) Require thinking ahead and planning strategies (sports, table games)

 Allow freedom to play  Restrictions should be limited  Allow time to explore  Make suggestions and observe, but allow the child to make decisions regarding play  Display the right attitude toward play  Express the importance of play

 Select toys carefully. Toys should:  Be safe & fun  Be developmentally appropriate  Have variety  Not “perform”  Be planned for different play settings, such as indoors, outdoors and travel  Reflect positive social attitudes  Be nonviolent

 Improves fine-motor skills.  Helps children expand their concepts of color, line, shape, form, texture, and size.  Makes children think about their world.  Aids social-emotional development.  Helps with the decision-making process, expression of feelings, and building self-esteem.

 Stages of visual arts  Manipulative stage Children play with art materials instead of using them to create artwork. 1 st step of this stage—Children enjoy art for motor reasons, they cover paper with marks and pinch, pat and eat clay. 2 nd step of this stage—Children begin scribbling (dots, straight and curved lines, loops, spirals, circles) 3 rd step of this stage—Children begin to use basic shapes (crosses, rectangles and squares, ovals and circles) After the 3 rd step, a transitional step to the next stage begins, in which children begin to use symbols.

 Stages of visual arts (cont’d)  Representation stage Children create symbols that represent objects, experiences and feelings. They decide what the symbol is before they draw it and show spatial relations between objects. “I’m going to draw a tree.” Baseline at the bottom of the page colored green to represent grass. Children exaggerate size to show importance of objects. Transparencies—pictures that show inside and outside of an object. As this stage advances, children draw more detailed objects and begin to draw from not only their own perspective, but also others’.

 Adults’ role in stimulate art in children  Provide materials that allow children to explore and enrich art skills  Show children how to use supplies (scissors, paintbrushes, ect.)  Let children do their own work and come up with their own ideas.  Encourage children by showing interest, displaying artwork and participating in art with the children.

 Reacting to children’s art  When shown a piece of artwork, ask the child to tell you about it. “Can you tell me about your drawing?” instead of “What is it?”  When asked for ideas for artwork, suggest 3 ideas and let the child choose the one that sounds best to them.

 For young children, there is a oneness between movement and music. Because young children need chances to move to improve physical and motor skill development, music can be a fun way to support this need.  Provides chances sensory and expressive experiences  Provides opportunity to learn rhythmic patterns.  Improves listening skills

 Adults’ role in guiding music experience  Introduce musical activities suited to child’s interests (listening, singing, playing instruments, moving to music).  Provide an environment rich in sound.  Listen to and appreciate children’s musical attempts.

 Science is a way for children to learn about the world through exploration.  They learn science through wondering and seeking answers, caring for their environment, and observation.  Science activities should focus on children’s questions and their play.

 Adults’ role in encouraging science activities  Read books on nature and other science topics.  Visit zoos, gardens, forests and museums.  Ask children to name the sense(s) used in learning about objects and encourage them to classify objects.  Ask children many questions and encourage them to test ideas.  Allow children to watch, listen to and touch animals.  When children come in contact with substances (water, dirt, ect.), ask the child questions about that substance.

 Adults’ role in encouraging science activities (cont’d)  Science can help children overcome some fears so, if possible, teach children about their fears and talk about why it may be scary to them.  Look for opportunities in everyday life Helping in the kitchen or to care for the family pet

 Books can answer children’s questions and make them want to learn.  Builds their active and passive vocabularies  Helps children learn to express themselves in various ways  Young children like to hear stories about other their age and about people and things with which they are familiar—this helps them to better understand themselves.  Older children want to expand their knowledge by reading about topics that are unfamiliar to them.

 Selecting books for children  Must be on the child’s level Babies and toddlers: Nursery rhymes Toddlers and preschoolers: Picture books Older children: Books with more involved plots and more written description  When reading to children…  Read in interesting ways (using different voices).  Make sure children can see pictures clearly.  Encourage remarks or laughter.  Plan follow-up activities. Talking about the story, looking at pictures, drawing a picture relating to the story, do activities discussed in the book