1. Rachelle Vargas January 19, 2013
Playing to Learn!
Rachelle Vargas
January 19, 2013

2. Play!
Preschool is an exciting place where your child will explore, make friends and develop new skills. I can not stress enough how important preschool is for young children This Powerpoint is to help parents better understand, educate, and learn the importance of preschool and play in your child’s learning, growth and development. Some questions that will be answered are:
What does play really mean?
How can the preschool meet my child’s needs through play?
Does play help my child’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development?
How is play important?

3. “Whoever wants to understand much must play much” Gottfried Benn
Play in a child’s development is essential. Play is more “than a means to an end, it helps us to preserve in our efforts and to explore the full range of emotions” (Van Hoorn, 2011, p. 27)
Play is the source of development and is extremely important to a child’s growth. Having the child feel, see, hear, and smell in his or her environment will actually help the child learn more than you know! Our job is to help foster the child’s interest and provide materials, objects, direction and a caring staff, to help the over all child. Play helps children learn cognitive skills, social and emotional skills as well as physical development.
Now let’s look at some of the characteristics of play…

4. Characteristics of Play
“The major defining characteristics of play are positive affect, active engagement, intrinsic motivation, freedom from external rules, attention to process rather than product, and nonliterality” (Klien, 2012, Para. 9).
Children seek the enjoyment of play and through play children seek what they like and dislike.
Positive characteristics of play are: laughter, smiles, singing, clapping and joy.

5. Theories of Children’s Play
“Play is essential for optimal development and learning in young children. The match between the characteristics of play and the characteristics of the young child provides a synergy that drives development as no teacher-directed activity can” (Hoorn, 2010,pg. 5).

6. What Theorist Think About Play
Vygotsky- “Believes that play in it’s self is the source of development” (Van Hoorn, 2011, p. 273).
Piaget- He did much research on child’s development and puts “high premium on the child’s spontaneous and autonomous activities” (Van Hoorn, 2011, p. 28).
Mead- He described the “relationship of play to the development of a stable sense of self”
(Van Hoorn, 2011, p. 39).
Erickson- He also believed that play was very important at a young age and believed that through play children could work out their problems.

7. What is the value of observations and interpretations?
It is very valuable to have a teacher observe and interpret the developmental stages that children go through. This helps with the understanding of each child.
It also helps teachers with the appropriate curriculum for children.
Observations help in showing the growth and progress of each child.
Information can be shared with the parents at parent conference time.

8. What is Solitary Play?
Solitary play is defined as play alone, without interaction with peers. For example, a child might go into the reading center and look at book alone.

9. Parallel Play
Parallel play is defined as “play with shared materials or physical proximity without attempts to coordinate play” (Van Hoorn, 2011, p.66). For example, two children are sitting near each other in the block area but are independently working with their own blocks.

10. Group/Cooperative Play
Group play is where children talk with one another about their play but still play independently from one another. For example, if there are children at the table making patterns with colored bears they may ask each other how many colors they have, but they still work on their own patterns.
Cooperative play is where children work together on a particular game, toy, or goal. This is where a joint effort is made to play together during playhouse time.

11. Social Development
Play helps children learn many different coping skills.
As children play with their peers they use creativity and work out any problems that may arise. For example, if a child wants to build a house out of blocks and the other child wants the blocks too, the teacher may suggest they both build a house for their dinosaurs to live in. This helps build language, social development, and gets their ideas and feelings met through play.

12. Emotional Development
Piaget also wrote about play, “as a cornerstone of emotional development and like Erikson, he described the “liquidating” function of play that allows children to neutralize powerful emotions and release them by reliving them through make-believe” (Van Hoorn, 2011, p. 67).
Play helps build emotional development. For example, children learn by playing together what is acceptable play and what is not.

13. Intellectual Development
“Through play, children develop boundaries of the real and the imagined, and also visions of the possible, the drive from childhood that turns the wheels of invention” (Van Hoorn, 2011, p.6).
Play also helps with language development, investigating strategies, decoding symbols and logical thinking.
Games are a great way to learn and help with cognitive skills and language. For example, having children learn the rules of bean bag toss and that each person takes a turn is a great way to help with rules that “require players to reflect on the relationship of all the players within the framework of the rules” (Van Hoorn, 2011, p. 53).

14. Spontaneous Play
Spontaneous play is when a child is free to explore his surroundings and use his imagination in play. He may choose to play with cars and build a road. He may go to the Science table and choose to look through the binoculars on the table. The playhouse is also another area where a child can spontaneously play with the props provided. Spontaneous play “reflects all: intrinsic motivation, active engagement, attention to means rather then ends, freedom from external rules and nonliteral behavior” (Hoorn, 2011, p. 9).

15. Guided Play
Guided play often involves teachers setting out specific items to help children learn and use their cognitive skills. For example, a teacher may set out ice cubes and containers of warm water and ask children, “What do you think will happen to the ice? How can you tell?” (Van Hoorn, 2011, p.100). There is usually a “clear idea about the aim of the structured play, and may have specific learning intentions in mind” (Williamson, 2010, para. 3).

16. Directed Play
This type of play is usually directed by a teacher, parent or caregiver. For example, a teacher may ask a child, what do you think will happen if I match this side to this one? It might involve a specific teaching goal or assessment. Directed play is usually clear and specific and often times choices are provided. (Van Hoorn, 2011, p. 100)

17. What is play-generated Curriculum?
Play-generated Curriculum: This is curriculum that “emerges directly from the interest of the child” (Van Hoorn, 2011, p.90). For example, a teacher may notice that a group of girls are at the Science table and are very interested in using the magnifying glasses, the teacher may suggest that when they go outside they can collect things, such as, leaves, rocks, and pine cones to look under the magnifying glass to build on their interest.

18. What is Curriculum-generated Play?
Curriculum-generated Play: This is curriculum that provides an extended play experience and builds on what a child already knows or has learned. For example, in the playhouse center their may be different types of foods, play clothes, and other items for the child to use to bridge their learning experience.

19. “Play is our brains favorite way of learning” Diane Ackerman
Play is “essential to the social, emotional, cognitive and physical well being of children beginning in early childhood” (Mulligan, 2011, para. 1).

20. References
Klien, T., Wirth, D., Linas, K., (2012). Play: Children’s Context for Development. Retrieved from
Mulligan, D., (2010). The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bond: Focus on Children in Poverty. Retrieved from:
Van Hoorn, J., Nourot, P. M., Scales, B. R., Alward, K. (2011). Play at the center of the curriculum. (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson
Williamson, G., (2010). Free and Structured Play. Retrieved from