Learning through Play
How do infants and toddlers learn? How do I teach them? You may have thought about questions like these in considering your role as the teacher of young children. You already know that more learning takes place during the first three years of life than at any other period, but did you realize that every child begins learning at birth? Research shows that children are born ready to learn and are naturally curious beings motivated to make sense of the world around them. Children explore their world by taking in sights, sounds and textures, sorting them out and making discoveries about how things work.
Play is the work of young children; therefore you do not need to provide special toys, videos or flashcards to teach the children. Learning takes place when a child sits down and begins to play. Through play children learn many of the concepts needed for future development and learning building upon previous experiences.
Toys are natural teachers; children learn new skills and master old ones while having fun. The following are examples of what children can learn while performing specific play tasks:
When a child:
Bats a mobile
Rolls a ball back and forth
Fits shapes into a frame
Builds a block tower
Holds hands and dances with another child
Beats a drum
Repeats a favorite finger play
Puts pieces in a form board
Takes blocks off the shelf and builds
Mixes water with dry paint
Successfully learns to use paste
Cuts bananas with a plastic knife |
The child is learning:
Cause and effect
Cooperation
Matching and eye-hand coordination
Coordination and creativity
About relationships
How to make music and keep a beat
Fine motor control and language
Concepts such as shape, size, color
Independence
Science concepts
Pride in an accomplishment
Part and whole concepts |
Teachers need to provide some facilitation and expansion to enhance the overall experience and can be most effectively accomplished by observing the children to match toys and materials to the children's capabilities, interests and needs. Deciding how to display and arrange the toys and materials is just as important as what is provided. To facilitate learning there will be times when teachers will want to talk with the children about the activity to help them learn through their interaction with the toy such as, "Who's that in the mirror", "What happened when you dropped the ball on the floor?", "I can hear you making noises with the rattle", "Look how tall your tower is", "Let's give your car a big push to get it out of the mud", or "What are you cooking for your baby?"
Play is vital to the development of infants and toddlers, it is how children learn and make sense of their world and it is their work!
Resources:
The Creative Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers; Dombro, Colker & Dodge
www.teachingstrategies.com/pages/article.cfm?articleid=25
www.zerotothree.org/play
If you'd like to learn more about how children learn through play or other infant toddler issues please contact:
Special Projects Coordinator
Oklahoma Child Care Resource and Referral
4200 Perimeter Center Dr. Suite 235
Oklahoma City, OK 73112
1-888-962-2772
birthtothree@oklahomachildcare.org
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4200 Perimeter Center, Suite 235, Oklahoma City OK 73112