Fostering Lifelong Learning through Responsive Play Environments

The assignment content emphasizes the importance of intentional teaching, social and physical learning environments, and considering cultural contexts to foster learning in early childhood education. The Early Years Learning Framework highlights the need for responsive environments that meet children's needs, promote independence, and encourage communication, problem-solving, and collaboration. To achieve this, childcare facilities should provide a range of experiences, including art, group play, independent play, outdoor activities, and exposing children to new things while offering suitable supervision. The assignment also emphasizes the importance of reducing risk, using excursions to extend interests, and encouraging lifelong learning through critical thinking and curiosity. Ultimately, the content aims to support continuous improvement and meeting accreditation requirements for early childhood education programs.

CHCECE011 - PROVIDE EXPERIENCES TO SUPPORT CHILDREN’S PLAY
AND LEARNING
Activity 1:
For 3-5 year children, the physical activities may include running , balanced walk on plank and rolling
balls. For children with 0-2 year children, the physical activities can include reaching something, rolling
and running.
Question 3
Motivation-- It deals with motivating the learner to learn new things.
Exposition -- It focuses on transmission of knowledge to the learner.
Direction of activity-- It focuses on providing the activity based instructions to the learners .
Criticism-- Criticism deals with identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the children.
Encouraging imitation-- It deals with encouraging the children to imitate the good behaviour.
Summative assessment 2
Importance of play in child development:
Playing is an important part for the development of the child. Playing enables the children for using
their creativity and develops the power of imagination. Getting involved in play also enables the children
to improve the physical and emotional strength. The play also benefits the children for developing the
dexterity and cognitive ability. The play is also important for the development of the brain also (Oakley
& Barratt-Pugh, 2007). The children need to interact and get attached to the world surrounding them. By
getting involved in the play, the children get the scope to know the world. Conquering the fear is an
important aspect of the development of the child. By spending time in play, the children can be able to
reduce the fear. During play, the children often practice adult roles along with other children. During
different development stages, the children need to grow new competencies. Getting involved in play
provides the children with the opportunity to grow new competencies. Playing also provides the
children with the scope to increase their confidence level by mastering over different tasks. While
playing, the children work without any direction and it helps them to increase the confidence. During
play, the children also get the chance to work in the groups which help them to develop the social skills.

In other words, during play, the children start developing skills for sharing, negotiation, resolving
problems and self-advocacy skills.
During the different development phases, the children need to be allowed to practice the decision-
making skill. Every child grows at own pace. In the development phase, the children should be allowed
to grow at their own pace. Allowing the children to work in autonomy can help them to identify the
areas of interest. Independent play provides the children with excellent opportunities to take own
decisions without supervision and identify the areas of interest. In the case of the independent play, the
child does not need to follow the rules set by adults. They can use their own creativity while playing.
Playing without adult interference helps the children to communicate with other children
independently. It helps them to develop the group skills and also the leadership abilities. Additionally,
the independent play helps the children to have healthy bodies, passive entertainment and active mind.
Obesity is being considered an epidemic among worldwide children. Taking part in the active play helps
the children to get rid of the obesity and associated health issues.
The role of caregivers is crucial in the children’s play. The optimum benefits from play can be derived
when the care-givers observe the children at play. Observing the children when they are playing
provides them with an excellent opportunity to see the world from the child’s perspective. As an effect,
the caregivers become able to understand the personality traits of the children more accurately.
Designing an environment for play:
The children require being provided by a suitable environment to play so that they receive the optimum
benefits from games. The child care facilities take a key role to design the play environment. The play
environment needs to be developed on basis of the National Quality Framework, the Early Years
Learning Framework in Australia and the National Quality Standard.
The Early Years Learning Framework is based on the following principles –
• Developing the secured, respectful and reciprocal relationship with the children (Acecqa.gov.au,
2018)
• The educators should work in partnership with others to provide the children with the most
learning benefits
• The educators also need to set high expectations and maintain the equity
• The educators should show respect for diversity while dealing with the children
• The educators should also focus on implementing the ongoing learning
As per the Early Years Learning Framework, the educators need to implement the following practices –

• The teachers should adopt the holistic approaches while delivering education to the
children(Acecqa.gov.au, 2018)
• Being responsive to the need of children
• Using play as a way to foster learning
• Using intentional teaching
• Developing social and physical learning environments for having a positive impact on the
learning of children
• Considering the social and cultural contexts for children and the families
• Enabling continuous experiences and enabling the children to make the transition successfully
• Monitoring the provision of children and supporting them to achieve the learning outcomes
Meeting individual needs through playing—
In the Early Years Learning Framework, the play is considered as an important part of the education. As
evident from the framework, the children should be provided with a responsive environment so that
their requirements are met immediately.
The early years learning framework gives importance to achieving the following learning outcomes –
1. The children should have a strong sense of identity
2. The children need to feel connected with their own world. In addition, they should be able to
make contributions to the world.
3. The children should have a sense of wellbeing in their learning environment
4. The children should grow confident and develop themselves as involved learners
5. The children need to be able to communicate effectively
The desired learning outcomes indicate that the environment for play needs to be created in such a way
so that the children get enough opportunity to carry out their activities independently with other
children. Before involving any kid to the play, it is necessary to identify the learning needs of the
children and involving him/her to the game which meets the learning needs.
Meeting cultural diversity and gender interests—
The children should grow in a diverse environment (Lamb et al., 2014). In the childcare centers, the
children of all cultural background require dealing with equal opportunity and respect. At the childcare
center, it is ensured that values and beliefs of the children should be respected. While communicating
with the children, it is ensured that the gender-specific words are not being used.

Supporting safety of children—
The quality area 3 of National Quality Standard focuses on providing the children with safe and suitable
physical environment (Baxter, 2015). According to the quality standard, the play area for children should
support a wide range of activities. The play is needs to be spacious and it should contain the fixtures,
building and fittings which are suitable for the purpose. It also needs to be ensured that everything in
the area is accessible for the children.
Providing guidance to support expected behaviour—
The children are given clear directions regarding the expected behaviour . In case, any child is showing
unexpected behaviour, the triggering factors are identified and managed through behavioural plans.
Enforcing the behavioral rules and expectations—
The behavioural rules are demonstrated to all the children in the childcare facility. Beheviour of the
children are monitored closely and any deviances from the expected behaviour are identified.
Acknowledging and reinforcing acceptable behavior—
Rewarding the positive behavior is necessary to encourage the children to repeat those activities. At the
childcare facility, the children are provided with positive feedbacks for reinforcing the acceptable
behaviour.
Extending interest and learning on children—
The children are taught in an interactive manner. The learning and interest is promoted among the
children through play and social activities such as small excursions and group lunch.
Providing a range of experiences—
The children at the care center are provided with a range of experiences for fostering overall growth.
The following experiences are provided to the children for enhancing their learning and developing new
skills and opportunities—
 Getting involved into art and craft for developing innovative thinking
 Getting involved into group play for improving the communication, interaction , collaboration
and problem solving skills
 Getting involved into independent play for building confidence, developing autonomy and
independent decision making
 Getting involved into outdoor activities to obtain information regarding the nature and its
interaction with society
Exposing to new things and encouraging others to play—
The children are exposed to new things as per their age, learning needs and health status. For instance,
the children below 2 years are mainly involved into the activities such as walking and running. The

children of 3-5 years get the chance to play with natural things such as the clay, sand, water. The
children are demonstrated with the fun and benefits associated with play. Demonstrating the benefits of
playing encourages the children to take part in such activities.
Interacting appropriately and offering suitable supervision—
During play session, the children are supervised by professionals. The supervisors provide them clear
instructions regarding the appropriate and inappropriate behaviour during play. If a child is experiencing
injury during play, he /she is provided with medical support. In case of an unexpected beheviour, the
children are provided with the time-out to control their behaviour.
Reducing the risk of inappropriate play—
The risk of inappropriate play can be reduced by providing clear instructions (Phillipson et al., 2018). The
age and health status of a child is considered before letting him/her to get involved to the play. Finally,
the children are monitored closely to reduce the risk of inappropriate play.
Using excursions to extend interests—
The excursions help the children to explore new places and it enriches them with new experiences. The
excursions also help the children to get closer to the nature and growing more interest on the
environment.
Making children lifelong learners—
At the care center , the children are encouraged to think over an incident or situation. The supervisors
also encourage the children to ask questions to get more information regarding a situation. The thinking
ability and curious mind helps the students to learn.
Enjoying with children—
The professionals at the care center take active part in the children’s play. It helps them to observe the
children more closely and know them better. Playing with the children helps adults to make strong
relationship with them as well.
Facilitate learning with organizational policies and procedures—
The children are taught at the care center with help of the organizational policies and procedures. For
instance, the care centers incorporate strict policies for avoiding infection and maintaining personal
hygiene. The children are also taught and encouraged to follow the hygienic practices as per
organizational policies and procedures.
Continuous improvement of programs—
The childcare programs are evaluated continuously and feedbacks are obtained from staffs and parents.
On basis of the obtained feedbacks, the improvement areas are identify and modifications are made.

Meeting accreditation requirements of programs—
The childcare programs are developed as per the NQF and EYLF. It is also ensured that the care facility is
developed as per the code of building standards and the fire safety standards.
References:
Baxter, J. (2015). Child care and early childhood education in Australia. Melbourne: Australia: Australian
Institute of Family Studies.
Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., Hwang, C. P., & Broberg, A. G. (Eds.). (2014). Child care in context: Cross-
cultural perspectives. Psychology Press.
Phillipson, S., Garvis, S., & Richards, G. (2018). Early childhood education and care in Australia: a
historical and current perspective for a way forward. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood
Education and Care (pp. 24-37). Routledge.