This document discusses play in early years education. It defines play, outlines its importance for child development, and categorizes different types of play. Play is defined as voluntary activities done for enjoyment that are under a child's control. Play is important as it allows children to learn, develop skills and understanding, think creatively, and learn social and cultural norms. The document discusses various perspectives on play from theorists like Piaget and Vygotsky. It also outlines the characteristics of effective learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage, which emphasize playing, active learning, and thinking critically.

1. EV681 Early Years Pedagogy and
principles
Just playing?

2. • Defining play
• Ideologies
• Learning through play
• Learning and (child)
development
• Categorising play
• Planning and assessing
play
Just Playing . . .

3. Think-pair-share
Recall a memory of playing when you were little
• what were you doing or playing?
• who were you with?
• how old were you?
• where were you playing?
• why do you remember this?
• what ‘props’ did you use?
What might you have been learning about?

4. What is play?
“. . . includes a range of activities undertaken for
their own enjoyment or the satisfaction that
results.” Lindon, J. Understanding Children’s Play (2001) p2

5. How do children define play?
Emotional cues
• Voluntary
• Under child’s control
• Easy
• Fun
• Physical
Environmental cues
• On the floor
• Lacks adult
involvement
• No adult evaluation
• Can be continued
Howard, J & McInnes, K Ch2 in Moyles, J (ed) (2010) Thinking through play
Maidenhead: OUP

6. Why is play important?
• Developing dispositions for learning
• Acquiring new knowledge, skills and
understanding
• Giving opportunities to think and act
creatively
• Communicating as part of increasingly wider
social experience
• Building self knowledge and awareness
• Participating in social norms and values of
culture

7. “Play is one of the most common and significant
ways in which babies, toddlers, children and
even adults make sense of their world and of
the objects and people in it.”
Smidt. S ‘Play’s the thing’. (2010) TACTYC

8. What do children say about play?
“Play to me is like my heart it beats and it adds rhythmic
beat to my life. I love playing all kinds of stuff because it
makes me feel like things are happening in my head and
everything I hear and see it makes me like life. Because
of this feeling I feel good about myself. That’s what play
is to me.” (What children say about play. Play England. 2008)
“I think it’s
sometimes a
bit harder for
older people to
play because
they lose their
imagination”
(The New Charter for
Children’s Play. 1998)
“Play is fun, but
it’s hard work
too!”
( Daniel aged 6. Working With
Children in the Early Years. Jane
Devereux. 2003)
Play is not for all
children: “He’s big
now . . . got to get
on with his
proper work.”
Jacqui Cousins (1999)

9. What do grown-ups say about play?
• Froebel – gives joy, freedom, contentment, inner
and outer rest, peace with the world
• Freud – exploring, experimenting and managing
emotions
• Piaget – practice play; symbolic play; play with
rules
• Vygotsky – imagination in action
• Bruner – memory in action; flexibility of thought
• Hutt – epistemic and ludic
• Bruce – integrating mechanisms

10. Early Years Foundation Stage
“In their play children learn at their highest level...While
playing children can express fears and re-live anxious
experiences. They can try things out, solve problems
and be creative and can take risks and use trial and error
to find things out.”
Principles card 4.1

11. Revised EYFS 2012
Characteristics of Effective Learning
• Playing and Exploring – engagement
– Finding out and exploring
– Playing with what they know
– Being willing to have a go
• Active learning – motivation
– Being involved and concentrating
– Keeping trying
– Enjoying achieving what they set out to do
• Creating and thinking critically – thinking
– Having their own ideas
– Making links
– Choosing ways to do things

12. What Physical Development
learning could be taking place?
Children develop fine
motor skills through
playing with small
equipment. Balance,
co-ordination and
gross motor
movements are
developed through
vigorous physical
play.

13. Children learn
about the world
around them
through exploration
and investigation.
For example, in
blockplay children
could be learning
about shape,
symmetry, or
construction rules
. . . and cognitive
development ?

14. Play provides
opportunities for
children to explore
and experiment
confidently with
language. Children
can practice their
emergent writing
without fear of
‘getting it wrong’.
. . . and language and
communication

15. Play helps to
develop children’s
confidence and self
esteem. Through
pretend play
children can
explore roles and
act out feelings.
Play encourages
children to take
turns, share and
listen to others.
. . . and social
and emotional
development

16. Types of play
• How many types of play can
you name/describe?

17. Parten’s categories of play (1932)
• Unoccupied play
• Solitary play
• Onlooker play
• Parallel play
• Associative play
• Co-operative play

18. Five types of play
• Physical play
• Play with objects
• Symbolic play
• Pretence/socio-dramatic play
• Play with rules

19. Types of ‘pretend’ play
• Symbolic play. Pretend play, role play. Objects take on
personalities and symbolic meaning (i.e. a clothes peg
becomes a key for a door)
• Role play. Occurs when pretend symbols are used together.
Children take on roles and act out their understanding of
those roles.
• Socio-dramatic play. Interaction and communication with other
children in role play/pretend play situations.
• Fantasy [imaginative] play. A form of role play where children
experiment with roles they may not know about. For example,
pretending to get married or fly to the moon.
• Superhero play. Children role play unreal events using
characters from tv/film. Usually a war theme. (We Don't Play with Guns Here By
Penny Holland)

20. Free-flow play
• Tina Bruce’s 12 features of play can be
used as a method of evaluating the
quality of free-flow play experiences.
• Bruce described play as a process which flows –
not an event with an end product or outcome.
“Play is a process...It keeps flowing along. It keeps
the learning open and flexible...Children at play
are able to stay flexible, respond to events and
changing situations, be sensitive to people, to
adapt, think on their feet...”
(Learning Through Play. Tina Bruce. 2001. Hodder Arnold)

21. 12 Features of Play
Tina Bruce
• In their play, children use the first-hand
experiences that they have in life.
• Children make up rules as they play, and so keep
control of their play.
• Children make play props.
• Children choose to play. They cannot be made to
play.
• Children rehearse the future in their role play.
• Children pretend when they play.
• Children play alone sometimes.

22. 12 Features of Play...
• Children and/or adults play together, in parallel, associatively
or co-operatively in pairs or groups.
• Each player has a personal play agenda, although they may
not be aware of this.
• Children playing will be deeply involved, and difficult to
distract from their deep learning. Children at play wallow in
their learning.
• Children try out their most recent learning, skills and
competencies when they play. They seem to celebrate what
they know.
• Children at play co-ordinate their ideas, feelings and make
sense of relationships with their family, friends and culture.
When play is co-ordinated it flows in a sustained way. It is
called free-flow play.

23. Play?
• Children (reception) are making identical
Father Christmas faces with resources set out
by adult
• Children (nursery class) can choose to play at
one of 4 tables: duplo, play dough, sand,
drawing, before moving on after 15min.
Resources must stay on the tables
• Children (nursery) playing in the home corner
are being asked by the adult to count the
plates, chairs, teddies, spoons . . .

24. Planning play or planning for play?
• Contexts
• Resources
• Accessibility
• Time/space
• Adult who values play and encourages it; a
play partner
Learning, play and interacting
http://nsonline.org.uk/node/242798

25. The Role of the Adult in Play
• Creating a supportive
environment
• Providing a range of
opportunities
• Structuring and
planning
• Participating
• Valuing and
respecting Observing!

26. • What can prevent/inhibit play?
• What can happen when play is restricted?
• What should you do for a child who plays in
the same way/area?
• How would you address a child who plays with
an imaginary friend?
• Up to what age should play feature in school?
?

27. Narrative Observations
• Planned, focussed observations of an
individual or group of children for a given
period of time. Factual recording. Usually
planned with a specific purpose or aim.
• Spontaneous observations. Short,
concise, factual record. Post-its,
notebook.

28. Narrative observation
• Kim was playing in
the home corner.
She set up the
ironing board and
did some ironing.
Then she washed
up cups and saucers
and tidied up. She
wrote a shopping
list and dressed up,
then took a bag to
the ‘shop’ in the
nursery garden.
• Kim was playing in the home corner.
She pulled the ironing board across
the entrance and did some ironing. K
put the ironed clothes in the basket.
K collected the cups and saucers and
placed them in the bowl in the sink.
K ‘washed’ them and put them in
the cupboard. K made some circular
marks on some paper with her right
hand, folded it in ‘half’ and put it in
a envelope. K put the envelope in
her pocket. K put a purse in her
shopping bag and fastened it. K
wrapped a shawl around her and
went to the garden to the ‘shop’
tent and went inside.

29. Sampling
 Time Sampling. Systematic approach to
observation. Short, concise recording at
regular intervals over a given period of time.
 Event Sampling/frequency sampling. Used to
record specific events as they occur.
 When might these observation techniques
be useful?

30. Checklists
• Recording developmental milestones
• Monitoring progress against targets
• Summative recording of progress
How much information can a checklist
observation give you about an individual
child?

31. Participatory and Non-participatory
Observation
• Participant observation occurs when the
adult is engaged with the child or children.
Notes can be taken during the observation
or immediately afterwards.
• Non-participant observation occurs when
the adult remains outside of the activity.
Non-participant observation can be very
challenging with young, curious children!

32. Observation to inform practice
 Observing and listening to children enables
adults to reflect on what children are learning
and to consider the most appropriate
strategies to support their learning.
 Regular observation can help to build a
profile of a child which can then be used to
develop appropriate programmes for future
learning, based on individual needs and
interests.
 The value of observation lies in effective
interpretation and how the information is
used to inform planning.