The power of play: learning what comes naturally

Depth research has been carried out on the correlation between play and its positive benefits on early childhood learning, growth and development. It has been established that there is a positive connection between creative language and play and the social development of a child. Play has emotional benefits on a child such as enjoyment, relaxation, fun, love of life, tension reduction and self expression. Developmental benefits of play include cognitive development where imagination, creativity, problem solving, mastery of concepts and perspective taking improves.

Socially the child grows which can be seen through co-operation, sharing, turn-taking, conflict resolution and leadership skills development. The language of the kid also develops that is in terms of communication skills, vocabulary and narration. This paper goes further to illustrate how play affects learning. ( p.66-67)

In our case we will have a sharp in-depth look at two chapters, the first one being; Authoring books, plays and identities in writing workshops. Key practice: Approximated writing. The second chapter we shall look at is the discourse of creative expression.

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The first chapter mostly handles introduction to writing to kids where they are taken through a workshop where they mainly engaged in writing. The climax of it is when the kid finally authors a book and has a chance to sit on the authors chair and read the book to the class and to be admired and questioned at the end of the writing workshop. The rationale behind choosing this chapter on developing writing is that written communication is a very key skill communication skill and anyone should care being an expert in communicating really well through writing.

It is thus a privilege and great pleasure learning how a kid or an individual at large develops this skill and also to reflect and see how probably we did begin at it or ought to begin at.

Approximated writing is the key arguments in this chapter which symbolizes or represents a range of ways in which children can deliberate within their inner self between their personally invented forms of language understanding and the culturally determined rules for language. Approximated writing is close to the real writing language which embraces errors, incorrect spellings. It is used by children to formulate meaningful messages through their use of their emerging mastery of the language. The kids initiated their own writing projects and as they wrote they designed and illustrated images and prints for puppet plays, pages for kids-printed books, cards to relatives and friends, storyboards and journals. Graphophonic conventions such as using alphabetic symbols like “tuk” to represent the word took, putting bigger spaces between words, placing marks on words and organizing them in a pattern. Authoring in the workshop happened when the kids wrote, drew, told and dramatized the texts they had written down. Finally in regard to authoring the kids connected texts for the kids-produced books that they presented to the others through reading aloud from the author`s chair or even short plays that were acted for the class and videotaped.

A number of realizations came from these workshops or activity that was centred on kids literacy. The first one being that children are capable writers who are able to actively create and co-create meaning and such activities can be very instrumental in bringing out their literacy proficiency this is so because it is in such that they are challenged to explore all genres of written communication and also get a chance to freely air their ideas through their conversations and writings. The idea of getting a chance to sit on the author`s chair, present the book to the class, to be questioned and admired at the end of the writing workshop motivated the kids to really come up with a well-illustrated book.

The methodology used in this chapter or writing workshop to teach the children how to write is something really great and enjoyable both for them and their instructor

As a wrap up I can comfortably state that it is a matter of fact that children learn through play and exposure to plays enable them to develop their intellectual, social and emotional skills. Plays should thus be a part and parcel of a child`s life so that the child may grow and develop holistically failure to which the development of the child will be hindered.

References

Brock, A. (2009). Perspectives on play: learning for life. Harlow, England: Pearson/Longman.

Elkind, D. (2009). The power of play: learning what comes naturally. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Lifelong ;.

Gordon, I. J., Guinagh, B., & Jester, R. E. (2009). Child learning through child play; learning activities for two and three year olds. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Marzollo, J., & Lloyd, J. (2011). Learning through play ([1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row.

Silberg, J. (2009). Learning games: exploring the senses through play. Beltsville, Md.: Gryphon House.

Tizard, B., & Hughes, M. (2010). Young children learning (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub..

Tizard, B., & Hughes, M. (2010). Young children learning (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub..

Wood, E. (2013). Play, learning and the early childhood curriculum (3rd ed.). London: SAGE.

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