Sara Smilansky 1968

Theresa Conner

CDC HeadStart

07.25.2016

Sara Smilansky 1968

~Benefits of play for young children~

Background Check

Four Stage of Play 2

~ It has been found that children engage in increasingly more complex stages of play as they get older ~

• Infants engage in solitary- functional play
• Toddlers engage in parallel- functional play
• Preschoolers engage in associative play, constructive play and dramatic play
• Four and five year olds engage in cooperative- constructive play, socio-dramatic play and begin to play games with rules.
• Kindergarten and school age children elaborate cooperative- constructive play, socio-dramatic play and games with rules.

• Sara is known for Four Stage of Play.
• These play stages are considered to reflect a child's Cognative Development.

Activity:

Word Search

First Table Done Wins A Candy Bag

• Play enhances children’s creativity and problem-solving
• Play contributes to the development of self-regulation and social skills such as turn-taking, collaboration and following rules, empathy, and motivation
• Children, who engage in social and dramatic play, are better able to take others’ perspectives, and are viewed as more intellectually and socially competent by their teachers
• Outdoor play helps to promote children’s physical well-being, attention, conflict resolution, coordination, muscle development, and healthy weights
• Adding literacy-related materials to dramatic play centres, increases reading and writing activities and use of more varied language
• Children, who play out events in a story, have improved story comprehension and develop a stronger theory of mind, the understanding that others have different feelings, thoughts, views and beliefs
• Positive links between children’s dramatic play and early reading achievement have been found

QUESTIONS ???

• Fun Facts: Increasing age children tended to participate in more social form of play. Younger children tended to engaged in more unoccupied behavior, onlooker behavior, and solitary while preschoolers engaged in more cooperative play.
• Fun Facts: Since the 1800s, the play of children has been the focus of considerable study. One aspect of play, the various stages of play through which children progress, has been observed and recorded extensively.

~ There are times when individual children choose solitary play. A master lego builder, for example, may want the concentration allowed in solitary play ~

• When day after day is spent in solitary play and play seems “stuck” adults should extend their observations to determine if:
• The child is being isolated by peers
• The child has some emerging interest and social skills
• The child chooses to play alone
• The child needs some assistance to move beyond the present form and level of play.

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Teachers Knowledge

Four Stage of Play 1

Benefits of Play in Children’s

Development

1. Functional Play ( Also called Practice Play)

2. Constructive Play - children create or assemble a structure or object

3. Dramatic or Symbolic Play

4. Game with Rules

~The Creative Curriculum shows teachers how to create an environment that allows for functional play experiences by including new materials in each interest area. As children play with these materials they learn about their world. The Creative Curriculum teacher facilitates this learning by making descriptive statements that convey information or asking questions that get children to think about what they are doing ~

~Studies have shown that play has a positive impact on children’s overall development. The positive benefits of play on a child’s social/emotional, physical, cognitive, language and literacy development ~

~Play can also be classified into play behavior that corresponds to some developmental domains, although there is always considerable overlap ~

• Locomotor play - physical
• Social play - social/emotional
• Pretend play - social/emotional
• Object play - cognitive
• Language play - language and literacy