Learning Through Play

LEARNING THROUGH PLAY

Author: Kaye Plowman, Program Manager, Playgroup Victoria

Play, in our materialistic, product oriented society where time equals money does not rate highly. In our busy lives we seldom take time for leisure. We project this attitude on our children when we hot house them to perform through structured formal learning activities and give them little time for play.

We trivialise and undervalue play as just something that fills in time or keeps our children quiet, amused and out of our way. Current brain research paints a very different picture of the value of play. Even before birth babies receive information and process it. After birth the learning accelerates as the five senses are used by the baby to make sense of their environment and interact with it through play.

Each contact with an object, relationship or new sensation becomes an opportunity to play and learn. Parents, as the first educators, are able to help this learning process. They can provide many and varied play opportunities and loving relationships so vital to each child’s physical, emotional, social and intellectual growth and development. As parents model behaviours, children develop basic life skills, beliefs and values.

For the most beneficial learning outcomes play must be satisfying and freely chosen and directed by the child. Play needs time and space to follow through and repeat activities until understanding and knowledge is gained.

Just as learning to walk takes time, many failed attempts and a set of skills to achieve, play also follows a set pattern of investigation, experimentation, practice and repetition.

It is fascinating to watch small children play. They bring to the play their unique personality, fun loving playfulness, avid curiosity, vivid imagination, endless curiosity, wisdom, inventiveness and vitality. They display a peculiar mix of intensity and seriousness, joy and delight.

Often as adults we get so worried about yesterday and anxious about tomorrow that we miss the opportunity to live and enjoy the present. Through play children are just ‘being’, enjoying what they are involved in at that moment. As they play they control their environment and find their place and role in it.

Weekly playgroup sessions are a great way for babies, toddlers and young children to get together to play under the watchful eyes of their parents or carers. You can find a playgroup in your area by calling Playgroup Victoria on 1800 811 156 or visiting www.playgroup.org.au.