Play and Your Child

Compiled by Wee Care’s Teaching Team
This article was first published in Because We Care newsletter in September 2003.

Here is a trip back to the foundational principles that have enabled children to learn more effectively in the early years.

ON PLAY and EMOTION

From Making Meaning & Making Believe by Arietta Slade (1994):

When we help children learn to play, we help them develop the tools to make sense of things, to link experiences together, and to unravel the tangle of feelings and impulses. We help them to symbolise and to imagine….

By learning to play, we are helping children to make meaning, to make sense of things both consciously and unconsciously, possibly for the first time. It is by means of play that they are discovering what they feel, what they know and what they want. It is also by means of play and imagination that they begin to make sense of what others feel and believe….

Adults figure out how they feel by talking it through; very young children figure it out by playing.”

WHY PLAY AND INTERACTION COUNTS

From The Transition from Infancy to Language by Lois Bloom (1993):

Infant abilities and social contexts develop together in the first year. Infants show us in many ways that they are biologically prepared to express thoughts and feelings. An infant’s cry in the first hours of life is an expression of discomfort and dismay and at the same time contains the rudiments out of which the sounds of speech will develop. The ability to hear that /b/ is different from /p/, the tendency to gaze into another pair of eyes, the inclination to smile, and many other behaviours as well, are

there to begin with, awaiting the caring, comforting and co-action of responsive and responsible other persons….

Children learn more words when their mothers respond promptly to their vocalisations and also say something about the object of the infant’s attention.

From The Infant as an Active Organism (1996):

… it was still generally believed that infants were acted upon rather than being active participants in their own development…

(However), infants interact with their environment not only to gain information, but also to test ideas. In addition, infants are able to organise this information. Their motivation seems to be generated by their own need for mental activity. (In short therefore), not only does the caregiver influence the infant’s behaviour, but also the infant has an effect on the caregiver.

If you have found the information in this article useful, please pass it on to your friends. For up-to-date information about Wee Care Programmes for infants and young children, please visit our website at www.weecare.com.sg.