PLAY IN THE LIVES OF CHILDREN
Many early childhood educators, including those of us here at MCNS, are concerned that, with the current trend to increase academics in the early school years, play is not recognized as important and necessary to cognition. Does it matter if children do not develop mature play skills? In fact, play is so important that it is considered to be absolutely necessary to later success in school. Lev Vygotsky, the Russian psychologist, and others showed that, through mature play, children actually learn the very foundational skills that will prepare them for the academic challenges that lie ahead. Children learn how to develop immediate and long-term goals through negotiation in play. It allows children to consider and coordinate others’ perspectives with their own and to develop reflective thinking. Children learn to operate with symbols and develop abstract thinking. Children learn to follow the rules of play developed together in their games, thus developing memory and attention skills.
It used to be safe to assume that children spent much of their time outside of school playing. In fact, children may no longer be getting sufficiently rich imaginative play experiences in or out of school. Many teachers are reporting that children in their classes do not know how to play or that their play is very immature. These days children play less with mixed aged groups of children, thus lacking older children to teach them ways of playing or younger children to whom they can impart what play skills they have internalized. Toy manufacturers are producing ever more realistic playthings that tend to limit the imaginative use of play materials. Children spend less time playing with peers and more time alone using programmed educational toys and video and computer games. We do not know what information our children will need to know in the future. We do know that success in a rapidly changing environment depends on being able to think and act creatively.
MCNS is a play-centered school. We believe strongly in the value of play. We believe that young children learn by playing. This is not playing instead of academics. We believe that “academics,” i.e., reading, math, science are learned best by young children through play. But this philosophy is under attack in the US . Children are being tested at very young ages. Worksheets and computers have filtered down into early childhood classrooms. Many kindergarten curricula now are structured similarly to first grade curricula of a decade or so ago.
Play, as Piaget and Vygotsky proved, is children’s work. It is serious business. Children concentrate when they play and become deep thinkers. Play is symbolic. By engaging in symbolic play, children are building a foundation for reading and mathematics. One must understand the symbolic meaning of words and numbers, that words and numbers represent other things. Children learn the meaning of symbols through their play.
Children learn to understand social roles through play. They learn to control impulses and how to give and take and make compromises. Research confirms that social competency is a primary indicator of success in school. This cannot be gained from worksheets or sitting alone at a computer working your way through even the most engaging educational programs. Problem solving, leadership, taking turns all are developed through play with other children.
Children create plots as they play. They learn to sequence. They learn to develop complex story lines that make sense. All of this prepares them to read and write. They solve scientific and mathematical problems. Just watch them building with Lego or unit blocks. Sadly, many of our kindergartens no longer have blocks, Lego or dramatic play areas. And, if they do, their use is relegated to a very short time after the “important” literacy and mathematical lessons have been taught.
Observing children play clearly shows how children undertake their own explorations and how they generate their own problems to solve. One can observe their intense level of concentration, their dedication to their work.
“Albert Einstein held that, ‘Learning is experience; everything else is just information.’ When we observe young children at play together, we can see the strength of his statement. For true learning, children need to use their information; they need to experience it with their senses, their muscles, and their feelings.” 1 Whoever thought that one would have to defend the right of young children to play? But, given the current climate in which play is considered frivolous and pointless, it is vital for all early childhood educators to defend the absolute necessity of play in the lives of children.
This article by the Older Group teacher, Susan Milligan, is reprinted from a recent school newsletter.
1 ”Teachers on Teaching,” by Sally Cartwright. Young Children, September 2004, p 108.
