Play Case - Some Important Features of Play Identified in McI Module2

From an early age, play is important for a child's development and learning. 'Although no precise definition of play has emerged'(MCI Module,2009, Pg.81). Play is the main way most children express their impulse to explore, experiment and understand. Children of all ages play. Children play because it is fun, but play is also key to their learning and development. Playing builds children's knowledge and experience and helps develop their curiosity and confidence. Children learn by trying things, comparing results, asking questions and meeting challenges. Play develops the skills of language, thinking, planning, organizing and decision-making. Play is notoriously difficult to define. Exploration, fun, freedom, investigation, enquiry, learning, social development, coping with anxieties, making sense of the world and using up energy are some of the many descriptions and interpretations of play activities. Piaget considered 'Play has an important role in the development of intelligence of which the opportunity to master and practice skills at different stages of development '(Piaget in kathy sylva and Ingrid Lunt,1982p158,159). For Piaget, play was a means by which children could develop and refine concepts before they had the ability to think in the abstract. It isn't just physical but can involve cognitive, imaginative, creative, emotional and social aspects.

Some important features of play identified in MCI Module2 (2009) are:

The importance of play is not the result but the child's interest in doing the activity for long period without any results. The main focus of the child is the process involved, not the end product. An interesting play or activity is the one that involves the child fully and his/her body co-operates fully with his/her mind. Thus, the child interacts with the environment drawing his/her own ideas and motivation. For example: swinging, jumping, and playing on slide.

Play is something that a child selects on hisher own. He/she cannot be made to play forcefully. For example: My 3-year-old daughter loves to play with her kitchen set daily.

Children use their own experiences and negotiate their own rule for their play. There is no fixed rule to be followed. Children make the rules and are unable to follow 'the rule of the game and activities'. Roles are identities children assume in play. Some roles are functional: necessary for a certain theme. For example, taking a trip requires passengers and a driver. Family roles such as mother, father and baby are popular, and are integrated into elaborate play with themes related to familiar home activities.

Play is inherent quality in children. They should be actively involved in the activity, which is very important for their development. The role of adult is to provide an atmosphere and an environment where the children are encouraged to play. Freedom (within limit) is very important which helps the children to learn from play, which is vitally important for their healthy development. Learning through play is the process through which the child experiences his/her environment.

'Playing is the way in which a child learns'(MCI Module2, 2009, p82). Playing contributes to child growth as these play activities lead to learning experiences and thereby maturation. These changes contribute to child's overall development that is physical, intellectual, emotional, linguistic and social development. At birth, the infant is a pioneer setting forth to explore a very new and very strange place. She he does not know how the world works. Infants are born beginners in life. At birth their five senses are working. At first shehe has little muscular control over her/his body. By the end of the first year shehe begins to coordinate the use of hisher hands and soon is able to go everywhere on their own two feet, playing with their own hands. As children grow, they start developing creative, imaginative and spontaneous play thereby exploring their early childhood years. Creative play is a type of play where the child uses hisher own imagination like sand play, painting, making shapes through dough etc. Imaginative play is also a type where children imagine their real life experience through innovative ways in the form of play such as playing with doll, taking care of doll like mother, farming in the garden etc.

The young child is curious and hisher curiosity is never satisfied .They throw themselves in activities like play to experience the things. 'By playing children learn and develop as individuals, and as members of the community.'(Lain Macleod-Brudenell Janet Kay.2008, pg.192 ). Young children try much of what they see and hear in make -believe play. They learn by involving themselves in exploring, discovering, repeating and by continually adapting what they see in their daily life. Babies from birth to age of three are mainly involved in manipulative play in order to explore their environment. For example: when by daughter was given a car to play at the age of 1year she instead of driving used to throw ,bang and manhandle its parts which made her happy. Now at the age of three she knows how to play with the car in its real use. The characteristics of play change at different stages of development. Promoting children's learning and development through the provision of child-chosen activities is a further way of recognizing the link between decision making and children's development of self-esteem. These activities give the children opportunities to decide with which activity they will play and how they will play with it. For example: Providing treasure baskets for babies who are able to pick up gives them opportunities to make choices about which objects to explore and how to explore them. Children's opportunities and abilities to make decisions should be supported by enabling them to choose the equipment and materials with which they play at their own chosen activities. Therefore, the role of the adult is to provide a child an environment where they are free to play and explore the outer world. 'Adults have a role in providing materials and suitable environment for play, but children should have choices in this also'(Lain Macleod-Brudenell Janet Kay.2008 pg.203). As they play, children come to understand more about the world and themselves and develop the physical, cognitive, emotional and social skills that they will need to live independently later in life. Through quiet, creative, active, cooperative and dramatic play, children get the chance to work on these skills

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