Play in Early Childhood Education: Personal Philosophy and Theories

This report delves into the crucial role of play in early childhood education. The author begins by articulating a personal philosophy, emphasizing play's significance in fostering cognitive, creative, and social-emotional development. Play is seen as a fundamental medium for learning, encouraging curiosity, problem-solving, and communication skills, which are essential for interacting in the world. The report then examines the application of developmental theories from psychologists like Piaget, Erikson, Vygotsky, and Gardner, highlighting their advantages and impact on early childhood education. The report further discusses the challenges faced by educators due to a lack of knowledge about developmental theories, emphasizing the importance of understanding children's unique learning styles. The author concludes by advocating for child-centered play, structured in a way that promotes exploration and learning while minimizing risks, underscoring the value of play-based learning for holistic child development.

Running head: PLAY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Play in early childhood education
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1PLAY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Task 1.1
As per my understanding, play is an enjoyable act that is associated with the development
of cognitive skills, creativity, understanding and intellectual skills. In the play experiences, when
children get engaged in playing, it imparts emotions, motivation and thinking establishing neural
connections that are critical for brain functioning. The use of imitation and imagination involved
during play help children to develop cognitive skills like persistence and curiosity and language
acquisition through interactive play. I think play is a medium to develop creative skills fostering
creativity of imagination, thought, problem solving strategies and divergent thinking ability. I
believe that through the cognitive, imaginative and affective processes involved in play, children
come together and support their skills for predicting and arriving at solutions that are
unexpected.
I believe every child has different abilities and learn in their own way. When the children
are well guided, directed while following their own interests through play, they learn in the best
possible way. I strongly believe that play is the foundation for the interaction with others taking
them through adulthood and world. As children learn by doing and acquire knowledge through
playful activities, they get motivated to learn through their desire making sense of fascinating
world surrounding them. When children get engaged in learning activities, it helps to develop
positive feelings and self-esteem directed towards learning. There are opportunities and
exploration among the children making choices to take part in the play activities involved in
discovery learning encouraging problem-solving and creativity skills. Manipulation and
involvement occurs that are relevant to their life experiences when children use hands-on and
concrete materials for playing.

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It is my personal belief that there is construction of relationships in play-based activities
as a child’s mind is prerequisite to complex skills of writing, reading and mathematical
reasoning. Therefore, I believe that giving children the opportunity to actively manipulate,
explore, discover and question can facilitate child’s cognitive development. In the classroom,
when children get engaged in play experiences, it supports emotional health, social skills,
physical and cognitive growth
I believe that in play education, when children are left to play, explore, imagine, create
using senses experiencing in plays, they engage with each other. Children learn while playing
that is extensive as it increases their communication, literary and imagination skills. Play work
well in building their confidence encouraging writing and reading skills. Discovery, exploration
and interaction of children in one’s social world through play is as critical as learning process
explored in the physical environment. There are immense opportunities for children to develop
cooperative interactions through playing with peers.
My personal philosophy behind child play is that it fosters intellectual competence. When
children get actively engaged in play-based activities, it promotes their optimal overall
development in every aspect of child life. My personal concern behind child play is that play
develops healthy confidence, self-concept, motivation and curiosity to learn and develops ability
for the establishment of cooperative relationships while playing with peers. I strongly believe
that emotional and social development of the children is of paramount importance that is
encouraged through play-learning hinging on emotional well-being. In addition, my philosophy
also lies in the fact where play is a cognitive approach as children get actively involved in their
own learning. When children are engaged in playing, it allows tutor to carry out a clinical
observation helping children to get adapted to the learning environment according to their level

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of understanding. I also believe that play in a group encourages communication and social skills
between the peers learning through interaction with peers in a friendly learning based
environment.
My personal belief behind play is that it helps to foster active engagement of the children
to become active members of the society supporting their emotional, social, intellectual and
physical growth. Play-based learning experiences are meaningful for the children relevant to
their lives as I believe that every child is unique and has his or her own learning style and
temperament. When children interact with their peers, tutors, play materials and environment,
they try to relate every piece of new information to their existing view in the world. These
established relationships forms the basis for the children’s learning exploring and discovering
more about their surrounding world. With time, these relationships become more polished and
sophisticated.
As per my philosophy, play activities are advantageous; however, it has certain
disadvantages depending upon the type of play designed for the children. To plan and implement
plays in the classroom settings is problematic being much debated. The play should be designed
according to the child’s interest termed as ‘child-centred’ and when it is restricted; it limits a
child’s exploration and discovery. I strongly recommend that play should be structured so it does
not expose them to risk and limits their exploration, rather helping children to enjoy and learn
through pleasurable play.

4PLAY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Task 1.2
The theories of development proposed by mid-twentieth century psychologists like Jean
Piaget, Erik Erikson, Lev Vygotsky and Howard Gardner are based on the experiences and
observations with the children. The knowledge about these theories lays the foundation for the
early child education and provides a framework for the tutors.
Firstly, Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory is based on the fact that development occurs
throughout the life providing insights into healthy personality formation. This theory is
advantageous in a way that it illustrates development in children is based on their response
towards social environment. When children get actively engaged with the social environment, it
develops their social skills by providing them social support and opportunity to help children
come over crisis or conflict that occurs at every stage. This theory is based on the fact that when
there is well-equipped capability to resolve early adulthood crisis that can be successfully
reached if the adolescence crisis is resolved (Dunkel and Harbke 2017).
Similarly, Piaget’s developmental theory is also advantageous as it has huge impact on
the early childhood education suggesting that children should be taught at their developmental
preparedness level. This theory has also improved the cognitive development understanding. The
ability to communicate with children and methods of observing them is possible through Piaget
theory (Shute and Hogan 2017).
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory is also advantageous providing solid foundation of how
children learn before entering school and how knowledge is related to the concepts that they
learn in school. The socio-cultural theory framework works as a foundation for the early

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childhood educators (ECE) in knowing how to address the learning needs of the children, what
they learn and how they learn (Panhwar, Ansari and Ansari 2016).
Multiple intelligences approach used in Howard Gardner theory forms the basis for the
variety of differences among the children having different mental performance levels. The theory
helps to recognize the different talents and abilities of children providing a theoretical
foundation. This theory explains that many children are not mathematically or verbally gifted,
however they hold expertise in other areas like spatial relations, music or interpersonal
knowledge. The approach and assessment of learning through this theory help early childhood
educators to allow wide range of children to participate in the classroom learning (Gardner
2017).
Early childhood educators face challenges when they lack depth and breadth of
knowledge about these developmental theories as it lays the foundation for explaining the
developmental inequalities and processes that occur in children based in development
definitions.
The main challenge is witnessed in relation to education level of the teachers and depth
and breadth of knowledge that they have regarding developmental theories. As the foundation of
early childhood education is developmental theory regarding how children should learn and
develop, it is important for them to understand and have good grasp of the theories guiding their
teaching. They should have knowledge about these theories as it guide tutors in early education
in teaching and supporting children as learners (Wood 2014).
When the early childhood educators lack the knowledge of various developmental
theories, it becomes challenging for the educators to treat children as unique individuals and

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modify the classroom that is appropriate to the developmental stage and age based on the
developmental theories concepts. While implementing these developmental theories, early
educators face obstacles while planning literary instruction that reflects on the children’s
developmental stages integrating their personal interests and allowing them to engage in the
learning process. The lack of appropriate knowledge about developmental theories poses
obstacle for the educators in the implementation of developmental appropriate practices into the
instruction of classroom literacy (Theobald and Busch 2016).
Every child is unique and possesses different talents and has their own way of learning
things. In such cases, if the educators lack knowledge about the development of a child
according to age, it becomes difficult for them to interact with the children, making them
engaging and enhance social communication with them. Moreover, to understand every child and
help them to learn in their own way, educators need to have in-depth knowledge about the
developmental theories that is suited as per the age (Wood 2014). The poor developmental
theory knowledge among educators can pose challenge in designing classroom as per their
learning ability. When they lack knowledge about how children learn, grow and their trajectories,
the intervention efforts made by the educators might be fallout contributing to their development.
The developmental outcomes like cognitive, social and emotional skills development would be
disrupted when educators lack knowledge about developmental theories shaping and supporting
child’s growth, literacy and development.

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References
Dunkel, C.S. and Harbke, C., 2017. A review of measures of Erikson’s stages of psychosocial
development: Evidence for a general factor. Journal of Adult Development, 24(1), pp.58-76.
Gardner, H., 2017. Taking a multiple intelligences (MI) perspective. Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 40.
Panhwar, A.H., Ansari, S. and Ansari, K., 2016. Sociocultural Theory and its Role in the
Development of Language Pedagogy. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 7(6), pp.183-
188.
Shute, R.H. and Hogan, J.D., 2017. Child and Adolescent Development. In Handbook of
Australian School Psychology(pp. 65-80). Springer International Publishing.
Theobald, M.A. and Busch, G.R., 2016. Key ideas, research and challenges in early childhood
education and care. In Understanding Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia
Practices and perspectives (pp. 95-120). Allen & Unwin.
Wood, E.A., 2014. Free choice and free play in early childhood education: Troubling the
discourse. International Journal of Early Years Education, 22(1), pp.4-18.