Education Journal due in 16 hours
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Wk3DiscECE205as.docx|
Weekly Food for Thought… |
[Pick a Date]
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Dear room 108 families
Uninstructed play is a common phenomenon among humans and animals of various species such as dogs and monkeys. Among humans, play is shared by children of all races and genders across each generation. Furthermore, scientific research has proven that play promotes a child’s early learning and development. Thus, the free and guided play offers learning tools that encourage joyful learning.
According to research conducted by Pellis, Pellis and Himmler, (2014) play has been shown to promote early brain development. As a result, the brain is more adaptable to social skills and executive functions in adulthood (The Case of Brain Science and Guided Play: A Developing Story | NAEYC, 2017). .
According to Toub et al (2016), there is a substantial body of research that has shown a link between play and how a child will learn and progress through specific areas of child development. The research has shown that play characterizes the appropriate context to enable learning (The Case of Brain Science and Guided Play: A Developing Story | NAEYC, 2017). .
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Play in our classroom
There are various ways that an early childhood professional can introduce free and guided play within the classroom environment. First, the educator can introduce guided instructions in guided play fostering learning of vocabulary among children. The children will first participate in a shared book reading, followed by guided play where the teacher will facilitate directed learning activities to emphasize vocabulary words. Secondly, the educator can introduce guided play to foster learning about geometry and shapes. The teacher can observe children as they play with shaped jigsaw puzzles and scaffold the interaction with instructions that build their spatial skills.
According to Verdine et al, guided play can foster spatial skills among children contributing to their future mathematics success (The Case of Brain Science and Guided Play: A Developing Story | NAEYC, 2017). .
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Catherine “Diane” Baulkman
The first example of guided play within the classroom environment fosters cognitive and language development which advances the children's communication skills by offering rich interactions and experiences as they communicate with the educator. Similarly, guided play reinforces ideas and concepts learned earlier through language. Guided play also fosters social-emotional development since during play, children can quickly gain the skills needed to function among peers. The skills include; sharing, sympathizing with others, and compromising. The second example of guided play also nurtures motor development as the children gain more control of their small muscle movements while grasping and fitting small pieces into the shaped jigsaw puzzle.
References
Groark, C. J., McCarthy, S. K., & Kirk, A. R. (2014). Early child development: From theory to practice. Bridgepoint Education.
“The Case of Brain Science and Guided Play: A Developing Story | NAEYC. (2017, May)” Www.naeyc.org, www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/may2017/case-brain-science-guided-play.
