Learning Through Play

Learning through play is something that everyone has experience of. Play helps children to develop their mental and physical health. It teaches them to take risks they wouldn’t usually take, or to solve problems they wouldn’t usually solve. This promotes imagination, independence and creativity, which is vital for children to be able to play. Many practitioners within education believe that children learn better through play than any other method available. Children learn much more during the first five years of their lives, than any other time because that is when they are taught and when they learn how to play.

Play, which is viewed as a child initiated approach, gives children a creative purpose as they can create their own games. It is also self-directed, so the children themselves can decide what they want to do and what they don’t want to do. They are able to decide who they want to do it with and who they don’t want to do it with. It gives them an opportunity to express themselves. Learning through play doesn’t end at the end of childhood, it carries out throughout life. If learning had ended through play, as teenagers or adults, we wouldn’t have been able to do half the stuff that we can. A child’s cognitive, physical, social and cultural development is developed through play. They use their imagination, they move around, they socialise and play with others.

As a child, just like any other, I loved to play although I was unaware that I was learning while playing. It was exciting, enjoyable and easy to do when I was younger, because I was able to pick and choose what to do and use my imagination to create my own games, which was very fun. When I was in an infant’s class at school, within the classroom there were separate corners which included a variety of activities. There was a bedroom, a kitchen, a living room and a painting corner. The teachers encouraged us to play and socialise with other children, which I know realise was to help us develop.

When on placement, I was able to observe children playing and creating their own games, giving each child a character and a purpose. I often wondered how they had learnt how to play, but then I realised that they had taught themselves, and were encouraged by the teachers and their parents just like I was. While observing the children, I noticed how much fun they had, and how they had used their imagination and their own creativity skills to create their own games.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/feb/15/learning-play-imaginative-inquiry-teaching-schools-live-chat