Introduction
Recent research illustrating the importance of play in the development of children has mainly focused on individual cases in home settings. For this task however, it was more practical to lay emphasis on a day-care environment since with social changes occurring recently, a majority of children growing up have to go through the hands of either a child minder or a day care facility. This project was carried out to illustrate the importance of family participation in the proper upbringing of children as well as the importance of team work between child minders and children in an effort to ensure definite cognitive development. This study also chose practical evidence in its argument on heuristic play rather than focusing on already documented theoretic evidence as regards the aspect of play. The task was carried out to explore the fundamental continuity of effective play in early years’ pedagogy and how this aspect could be incorporated into the practice. Consequently, with all the illustrations that were drawn in this task, the end goal was to ascertain changes in the way things are done in facilities handling children who fall under the early years foundation stage (EYFS) that ranges between 0 to 8 years. This report seeks to illustrate the method that was used to obtain empirical evidence, the deductions that were made from this evidence as well as give recommendations in regard to what could be done to make the practice even more effective and more professional. It should be worth noting that as much as this project was meant to prove some facts, the participants involved were real people from real communities and once the observational part was over, the positive changes were maintained within the facilities. This was not a trial and error undertaking but rather an implementation of facts that have been well researched and documented in earlier years.
Methodology
In order to come up with a workable research process, several questions had to be formulated that served as a guide for the task. These questions were:
- What role do parents and other guardians, particularly family members, play in the cognitive development of children in the EYFS?
- How do children in the EYFS respond to heuristic play as compared to playing with manufactured plastic toys?
- How much background knowledge do child minders have as far as the Elinor Goldschied’s philosophy of playing with objects made of natural materials is concerned and how does the aspect of team work play into the practicality of this knowledge?
Three case study settings were chosen based on the different age groups in a child- minder facility. Separate classes of children ages 0-20 months, 16-36 months and 30-60 months were established and regarded as observation centers. A documentation of the children’s response to various aspects of heuristic play was then made.
Scenario 1: Communicating and working with families
The ages 0-20 months set was designed in such a way that it allowed for the parents and minders to play with the children in an all-natural environment. All plastic toys were discarded and replaced with toys made of wood and other natural materials. Bumbo chairs were also kept out of the play room in order to encourage the parents and the children to play on the floor; a practice that has been shown by research to auger well with children’s physical and neurological development. The toddlers together with their parents/guardians were even encouraged to venture outwards as this was an opportune way to make the babies experience the world using all their senses. From the task, it was evident how effective this setup was as the younger babies enjoyed the freedom to move when they were placed on their tummies and backs. The older and more mobile children as well had a lot of fun playing with the heuristic objects that they had been provided with. The parents were impressed with the progress their children were making, though some slight concern was raised about the children getting injured while playing outside. It was resolved that protective clothing be introduced for this part of play. This part of the task also served to dispel the myth that attending stay and play sessions was a daunting experience to the parents. By giving additional support to those parents that needed it and setting up activities that actively involved the adults, it was easier to get parents to be more comfortable, consequently carrying home more desired skills.
Scenario 2: Effective practice
The 16-36 months was a play room containing toys made of only natural material. These were toys that the children did not access to on a regular basis. The children were introduced to the room and guided on the new playing routine. The ultimate aim was for the children to make independent decisions as regards to what to do with toys. The adults played an observational role and were discouraged from guiding the children in the activity. As it turned out, the children were initially naturally apprehensive to the idea, however after the first introductory session; they became more at ease and had fun playing with the new heuristic toys that had been provided. This part of the task was so successful that in subsequent sessions the children became more confident when introduced into a new room and almost immediately took to exploring the new objects that had been set up. As a result, the status of heuristic play as an important aspect of a child’s development was clearly defined.
Scenario 3: Teamwork and collaboration
The 30-60 months play area contained more mature toys, including a sand and water play area outdoors and a construction area and book corner indoors. The heuristic theme was still maintained. The children were observed as they made decisions on what to do with the items placed before them. Under the lead of one of the children they decided to play a cooking game. This observation was noted and in the next session, the children listened to a story that followed a food and cooking theme. The story session proved to be very effective as one of the children went ahead to re-enact a scene from the story. Later, the adults and the children made a fruit salad together. It was interesting to see the active role the children took in the task. The results were so impressive that even the child-minders noted a remarkable development in the level of participation of the children. The cognitive impact of this aspect of pedagogy was also immediately seen, with one of the children using a word that served as an example for the others to learn from.
Findings
Setting 1: ages 0-20months
Once heuristic play was introduced, the level of interaction between parents/minders and children increased impressively. This parent to child attachment has been linked by scholars such as Judy Dunn (1988; 1993; 1999) to emotional and cognitive development. The children’s awareness of their surrounding also rose significantly with some of them being attracted to playing outside an action that followed the maturational models of cognitive development that were popular in the 1970s such as the information processing approaches (Keogh and Sugden 1985; Hay 1979; Schmidt 1975). The parents also welcomed the idea of keeping the children busy with toys made from everyday natural materials and conceptualizing new play ideas that kept the children physically active.
Setting 2: ages 16-36months
The fact that learning is a cognitive developmental process that happens when a child is fully encouraged to participate in a certain activity was clearly evident in this setting. Children in this particular case were drawn to the activity once it was initiated by the adult. The cognitive construction in this case was reinforced by the facilitators’ verbal communication and encouragement; an element of sustained shared thinking. One of the major critical findings this analysis arrived at was that child-minding facilitators need to have some level of background knowledge as far as the Goldscheid’s model of heuristic play is concerned; knowledge which they could combine with their hands on experience to achieve even better results as far as the cognitive development of children is concerned.
Setting 3: ages 30-60months
The third setting mainly served an educational role to the child minders and the facilitators. To this end, the primary objective was to illustrate that tapping into the children’s interests (when applying the six basic educational strategies identified in the EYFS framework) would develop more positive results. This is more of a connectionist approach whereby children are able to utilize associations and skills acquired in one task in performing another related but different activity. As an upshot, the children end up being well knowledgeable without as much of a struggle (Bereiter 1991). The major discovery from this task was that a majority of individuals dealing with children in most day care facilities would like to see positive changes in the way they offer service and they are ready to welcome hitherto untried strategies to this respect.
From all the three setups, a variety of lessons were learnt by the researcher. These were mainly personal discoveries but could still apply to any individual working the same practice. First, the researcher was able to develop an understanding of how babies communicate during the EYFS. This was a lesson learnt by the constant interaction with the children. The researcher also learnt not to take for granted the fact that not all practitioners have the necessary background knowledge when initiating a new strategy or policy and as such realized the importance of first getting other participants to be interested in your vision by running them through a brief background. From the second part of the task, the researcher also learnt the importance of team work in whatever activity one was taking part in. This was occasioned by the response received from the team which comprised individuals who had no prior encounter with the heuristic model but were eager to share their knowledge and understanding of children garnered from years of experience. While working with the practitioners, the researcher realized the importance of coming up with ways that would make the said practitioners more at ease and help them overcome anxiety when faced with a situation that demanded change in how things were done. In the same way, working with children in a variety ages, the researcher learnt to devise approaches that would adequately cater for all the children that were involved. Still on this point, the researcher discovered the significance of the role that practitioners play as far as guiding children whenever they experience difficulties was concerned. The parents had to be modeled to new concepts of child play and though initially most were not very enthusiastic, the researcher’s persistence eventually bore fruit. The researcher learnt the importance of carrying out regular analysis of the effectiveness of an idea and making the necessary changes. Flexibility was the key word when it came to dealing with parents and their children. Finally the writer also learnt the importance of carrying out a full risk assessment of the environment and resources when trying out new ideas. This would later come in handy in ensuring success of the task.
Recommendations
Children in the EYFS should be encouraged to take part in activities that contribute effectively to their cognitive development. Models that are dynamic and ecological in nature such as the heuristic model which seeks to help children relate internal body mechanics to environmental requirements are even more desired. (Clark and Phillips 1993). It has been illustrated in previous research, and more precisely by the maturational models proposed by Shirley (1931), Gesell (1945; 1988) and McGraw (1963), that children’s motor development can only occur properly if and only if dynamism of physical activity is encouraged and maintained. With games that can be developed to ensure more physical activity (such as the treasure basket), the children will mature into functional adults capable of making independent decisions.
It is recommended that child-minders undergo some level of training in order to acquire background knowledge as far as concepts that can be applied in order to establish desired cognitive development in the children is concerned. This is an idea that is supported by the findings of a 1970s project reported in Hutt et al (1989), revealing that minders working alongside teachers normally used approaches aimed at developing the children’s cognitive abilities; strategies that those working without teachers in their teams did not apply. The aspect of team-work holds substantial weight in encouraging the way in which children pick up skills applied in one task and using them meaningfully in other activities.
Parents should be encouraged to appreciate the impacts of professional influence on their children’s development. Many a times, parents and more-so first time parents would rather apply trial and error techniques as far as their children’s early education is concerned. This is especially so because of the worry that the influence of outsiders may impact negatively on children in EYFS. In the same way, whenever parents have to leave their children under the care of minders or day care facilities, very little consideration is made of the level of academic training that the facilitators have gone through. Research has actually shown that children who are exposed to minders with graduate qualifications have been found to develop better cognitively than children who are brought up exclusively under the care of people without such academic knowledge (Shorrocks et al 1992, Jowett and Sylva 1986).
Parents should also know that their interaction has a well defined impact on the development of their children. The way that parents talk to their children should be in a way that encourages them to actively respond to the event they are being called to. (Hughes and Westgate 1998). Three structural aspects play a crucial role in the way children in EYFS advance cognitively; these are, the quality of the time spent interacting with adults and their peers, the nature of the different tasks that they are involved in and the layout of the learning environment (Sylva et al 1980). Whenever possible parents should spare time to bond with their children either at home or in play groups. These stay and play sessions play a distinct role as far as personal growth of the parents is concerned. This comes from the sharing of parenting ideas and experiences occasioned by interaction with fellow parents.
Frameworks should be established that facilitate meaningful play in the already established child care facilities. This can be achieved through adoption of already proven-to-work models in the implementation of strategies. Some of these models include Athey’s (1990) work on schemas as well as Goldschmied and Jackson’s (1994) work on heuristic play. Goldshmied’s work on play has served as the major guiding principle of this report. Researchers should constantly try out new ideas and work on concepts that would help in effectively raising the children of this 21st century.
Conclusion
The task proved very effective in fulfilling the goals that it set out to elaborate on. There was a consented and collaborative effort from all parties involved, that is, parents, child minders and the facility owners. From the first part of the task, the importance of parent-child relation was well illustrated and the recommendations made were that more of the stay and play sessions be encouraged especially for children in the EYFS age 0-20 months. The cognitive benefits associated with allowing children to get in contact with their natural surroundings could not be understated. The second part of the project sought to encourage the importance of providing children with play options that are all heuristic. Children were able to come up with quality play ideas all on their own using only the few toys which they were offered comprising of everyday household things. This aspect of the task linked into the function of effective practice by concluding that, it is not the type of toy that matters but rather the purpose for which the toy is used. The final part of the project set out to explain to the facilitators the importance of team work. It was shown that for effectiveness in raising children while ensuring that they develop into functional individuals an understanding of their inherent interests was key. It was clear that children are more responsive to activities that are related to tasks which they have previously initiated. With the effectiveness of concepts developed by practitioners in this field being proven, word will definitely go round and with time parents will be more comfortable in letting their parenting approaches be guided by professionals.
Reference List
Athey, C. (1990) Extending Thought in Young Children London: Paul Chapman.
Bereiter, C. (1991) Implications of connectionism for thinking about rules. Educational Researcher 20: 10-16.
Clark J.E., and Phillips S.J. (1993) A longitudinal study of intralimb coordination in the first year of independent walking: A dynamical systems analysis. Child Development, 64: 1143-1157.
Dunn, J. (1988) The Beginnings of Social Understanding Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Dunn, J. (1993) Young Children’s Close Reltionships: Beyond Attachment. Newbury Park California: Sage.
Dunn, J. (1999) Mindreading and social relationships. In M.Bennett (ed) Developmental Psychology: Achievements and Prospects London: Taylor and Francis 51-71.
Gessell, A. (1988) The Embriology of Behavior. New York: Harper Brothers. Reissued 1988. London: Mac Keith. (Original work published 1945).
Goldschmied, E. and Jackson, S. (1994) People Under Three. London: Routledge.
Hay, L. (1979) Spatial temporal analysis of movements in children: Motor programmes versus feedback in the development of reaching. Journal of Motor Behavior, 11: 189-200.
Hughes, M and Westgate, D. (1998) Teachers and other adults as task partners for pupils in nursery and reception classes. In M. Woodhead, D. Faulkner and R.
Litterton (eds) Cultural Works of Early Childhood Education. London: Routledge.
Hutt, S.J., Tyler,S., Hutt, C., and Christopherson, H. (1989) Play, Exploration and Learning: A Natural History of The Preschool. London: Routledge.
Jowett, S. and Sylva, K. (1986) Does the kind of preschool matter? Educational Research 28: 21-31.
Keogh, J.F., and Sugden, D.A. (1985) Movement Skill Development. New York: Macmillan.
McGraw, M.B. (1963) The Neuromuscular Maturation of the Human Infant. New York: Columbia University Press.
Schmidt, R.A. (1975) A schema theory of discrete motor skill learning. Psychological Review 82: 225-260.
Shirley, M.M. (1931) The First Two Years: a study of twenty-five babies. Vol.1: Postural and locomotor development.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Shorrocks, D., Daniels, S., Frobisher L., Nelson N., Waterson, A. and Bell, J (1992).
ENCA 1 project: The Evaluation of National Assessment at Key Stage 1. Leeds: School of Education University of Leeds.