The Educational Value of Play as Work and Work as Play

IntroductionArguably wreak performs a vital weighty percentage in the schooling and personal demotement of the minor which arse be incorporated within a tolerantr educational frame range both on its take in as a nipper-led activity and as part of a broadcast. foregather upholds a tiddler to take loving clevernesss as tumefy as their imagination, language skills, capacity for problem solving and motor skills. Play enhances a youngsters capacity for creativity, which is a vital skill in later adult life.Play is best appreciated when it allows the baby bird to interact with the wider world finished a free exploration of the objects and phenomena they satisfy which is completely in railway with their natural leaning to want to search the world. Play in any case allows for a process of socialization whereby the minor can develop their emotional expression and cleverness to empathize with former(a) children through with(predicate) helping and sharing activities .The Italian educationalist Maria Montessori argued that a child led form of ladder is crucial and helps the individual to develop by organizing vexs through an concernment of the body and mind. This led Montessori to decl atomic number 18 that mold is the civilize of the child. In line with this approach, it depart here be argued that play is vital to a childs educational development. At the homogeneous time, in line with the eyfs curriculum, it is arguably beneficial if play is monitored so as to allow for an element of progression in the childs attainment activity. Though, arguably, this should not completely replace the childs tendency to play freely without aim, which is a valuable experience. In my own childhood experience the ability to play without aim al whizz or with others was crucial to my notional learning as well as helping me to create social skills.Tina Bruce, author of Early Childhood Education (2004) argues that Children learn best when they are given appr opriate responsibility, allowed to devise errors, decisions and choices, and respected as autonomous learners, (Bruce, study by means of Play, 7). Bruce continues to say that relationships are central to a childs ability to play and learn effectively. Therefore it entrust be finally concluded here that the adults who have important intentions in a childs life are required to secure a stalls and happy surround for the child to play, whilst observe that play to ensure a progression in the childs development. It will in any case be argued that play and hunt are ambiguous categories which in line with Montessoris thought should be allowed to overlap. BodyPlay has several identifiable purposes which help children to develop into individuals capable of interacting within a wider social community. Firstly, it helps to enhance acute thought processes, developing the ability to formulate abstract concepts, making whiz of the world of objects and developing problem solving skill s. Through play children develop the ability to make decisions based on an increasing awareness of their visible environment. It is important to recall at this stage that, as Bruce argues Subjects such as mathematics and art cannot be separated young children learn in an integrated way and not in neat, tidy compartments, (Bruce, training Through Play, 7).Play also helps children to develop coordination skills by using the muscles necessary to perform simple everyday activities. These motor skills can be enhanced through grabbing, pushing and holding objects in everyday play and include rough motor skills and fine motor skills, including hand-to-eye coordination. Random play is important in this process, though so is sport played to rules, which also helps to build group skills which are vital for social education.Language and communication skills are also enhanced through play, whether through direct interaction with word cards or through talking and negotiating during organize d or free role play. Similarly, emotional skills are developed through play as the child learns how to interact with others and to compromise in sharing and waiting their turn. By interacting with other children around objects important lessons are learned about fair doings around limited resources. As children interact with their environment and with other children and adults they develop the seeds of personality, learning self-confidence, independence and ways of creative expression.Play is often divide into categories, with each category being thought to be better at developing specific aspects of the young childs personality and natural capacity. As Dr. David Whitbread argues in a study conducted to assess the value of childrens play, five categories are often identified physical play, play with objects, symbolic play, pretence/ socio-dramatic play and games with rules (Whitbread, 18). So while physical play will be ideal for developing motor skills, symbolic play will be id eal for developing language and imagination skills. However, there is also a strong crossover betwixt different types of play and to trim down or categorize them strictly might interfere with the childs creativity. For example, symbolic play (using symbolic codes such as spoken language, construe and writing, number etc) may interact with physical play to become a kind of dance routine. The risk of very structured play is that these slippages between different types of learning will arguably not have the ability to emerge, and it is therefore of great importance that the level of monitoring allowed for under the eyfs curriculum does not interfere with the natural inclinations of the young learner to discover for themselves. present it is important to note the great crossover between play and work and the way in which a childs natural tendency to make play become work and vice versa should not be hampered.To highlight this it is worth considering the way in which Montessori no ted that children often gravitated to educational word play over playing with toys, drawing nearly enkindle conclusions. In The Secret of Childhood she observed Though the school contained some really wonderful toys, the children never chose them. This surprised me so more that I myself intervened, to show them how to use such toys The children showed interest for a time, but and so went away, and they never made such toys the objects of their spontaneous choice. And so I mum that in a childs life play is mayhap something inferior, to which he has recourse for want of something better (Montessori, 128)Whilst this has been taken as indicating that Montessori matte up children should work and not play, what is arguably intended, rather, is that children when left to their own devices will make work of play and play of work. In this sense Montessori felt that children engage in play solemnly with the intent of interpreting the world via its objects. Children finally play in o rder to become adults, so play for them is a type of work. Yet similarly, work in its absolute necessity for the childs own development is a type of play in that it is something they wholeheartedly and joyfully want to interact in.In light of this it is important that the child is permitted to choose their own play which to them is something serious and is, further, allowed to make their own mistakes so that they can prepare themselves for adult work, learning that mistakes can breaking wind to new pathways. In this moment of childhood, where provided the child has a safe environment mistakes are rarely detrimental to the situation at hand (i.e learning), much can be earned without risk. As such, a strong ability to manage uncertainties and disappointments can be fostered. Allowing a child to slip from one activity to another is also crucial as it allows a child to freely express themselves and show who they are and who they want to become.In his storied TED talk, the educat or Sir Ken Robinson spoke of the case of a dancer called Gillian, who at school was referred with her fix to a doctor because she couldnt concentrate in class. After talking with Gillian and her mother for twenty minutes, the Doctor asked Gillians mother to step outside the room. Before stepping outside he turned the intercommunicate on and then, with Gillians mother, watched Gillian inside the room, who began to dance. The doctor then said, Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isnt insane shes a dancer. Take her to a dance school, (School tears Creativity, 2006). What this tells us is that if students are strictly required to engage in on or other activity at a time and are punish for straying outside the strict confines of a learning or playing activity they be wrongly categorized as profuse when, in reality, they merely wish to express their true aptitude for a specific field of work.ConclusionAs has been argued, play is essential to education and children should be allowed to play freely wi th a minimum amount of monitoring in order to ensure that this play leads to a progression in learning, in line with the findings of Bruce. It must also be note, in line with Montessoris findings, that there is a big slippage between play and work and that children should be allowed to flow from different types of play and from playful work to serious play and vice-versa. As such the free movement of the childs imaginative impulses should be encouraged as part of the efs with a wide interpretation being given to the role of progression through play based learning activities, so that maximum freedom can be allowed for. In this way the child can be allowed to develop gibe to their own specific needs and modes of expression.BibliographyBruce, T. 2011. Early Childhood Development. Hodder EducationBruce, T. Learning Through Play, last accessed 7th December 2014, http//www.nicurriculum.org.uk/docs/foundation_stage/learning_through_play_ey.pdfMontessori, M. 1978. The Secret of Childhood. Orient Longman, HyderabadSchools Kill Creativity, last accessed 8th December 2014, http//www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/transcript?language=ent-993000Whitbread, D. The Importance of Play, last accessed 7th December 2014, http//www.importanceofplay.eu/IMG/pdf/dr_david_whitebread_-_the_importance_of_play.pdf