Furthermore, this view on children’s rights and listening to their voices has been supported by Graham, & Fitzgerald, (2010) who are of the opinion that the participation of children in research on matters that affect and concern them is of great essence and should therefore not be neglected. Engaging children through dialogue as Graham, & Fitzgerald, (2010) noted is important as it helps in exploring in depth issues that affect children. It is also important, as noted by all the authors of the various articles correlating to that of O'Dea, (2008), that relevant authority and institutions should be at the forefront in promoting children’s rights. Equality for all children should be a practice in conducting research on issues that affect children as it will help
For this extended assignment I am going to focus on play and the importance of play is for children and young people. I am going to focus on children up to age of 6. “Play is a spontaneous and active process in which thinking, feeling and doing can flourish.” (http://www.playwales.org.uk/ ). Play is Important for children and young people’s as it can help children to build their confidence.
There are a numbers of policies with the UK that affect the safeguarding of children and young people. The United Nations brought in the Convention of the Rights of the Child 1989 which sets out the rights of children. Included in these rights are the right to an education, the right to privacy and the right to be protected from physical harm, abuse and exploitation. The rights apply to all children and ensure that they are protected and looked after in an appropriate way.
5.2 Analyse the role of play in enabling children to learn to manage risk for themselves and others Although we want children to take risks and challenge themselves we also need to manage these risks to ensure the children are safe. Talking to the children about the various risks they could come across whilst playing let’s children make their own choices and decide how they can avoid these
• Be told what their rights are. United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child 1989 The UK signed up to this treaty in 1991. This sets out the rights of children in a set of 54 articles, some of these are to ensure children are safe and looked after. All the countries who have signed up to this are legally obligated to implement legislation that relates to the articles. Some of the articles that relate to the rights of children include: • Children need to be shown love and feel secure • Children have the right to family life • A child’s right to be protected from all forms of abuse or neglect
Children are able to develop and practise motor skills and bodily movements through physical plays. During some cognitive games, such as board games and educational toys, children can improve their mental fitness and brain function. Play also provides opportunities for children to make friends, to negotiate with others, and to develop their communication skills. It helps extend language and improve children’s social ability. I believed that play is essential to children’s education that cannot be minimized and separated from learning.
When arranging activities for play based learning within early years provision there can be barriers towards it from taking place. Before the week begins, planning is needed. When planned activities are prepared resources are needed too. Resources can become a barrier towards play. This is because the resources that were needed were not available to be used.
Play therapy refers to a method of psychotherapy with children in which a therapist uses a child's fantasies and the symbolic meanings of his or her play as a medium for understanding and communication with the child. The aim of play therapy is to decrease those behavioural and emotional difficulties that interfere significantly with a child's normal functioning. Inherent in this aim is improved communication and understanding between the child and his parents. Less obvious
At the end of the article, the authors propose that there should be more research studies on adulthood play. In conclusion, this article illustrates how important play is for adults and emphasizes the benefits of play. Discussion
The author, Stephen T. Asma, claimed that play is the most essential part of humans from his excerpt “Reclaiming the Power of Play”. The author started off by saying that of all human activities play is second to none, given what he mentioned of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and the description of the “three-step development of the human spirit” – first the human spirit takes on the form of a camel because it has to be highly responsible for taking on cultural duties such as ethical duties, social hierarchy, and the burden of tradition; second the camel changes into a lion and gets into the rebellion phase where a law-abiding person is freed from being submissive and is transformed into someone with power; and third the rebellion phase transforms into the highest level of humanity which symbolizes innocence and creative. It is true that play is very important, everyone started out with “play”.
I’m not going to lie, I found this production confusing and did not truly understand what was going on, but maybe the true meaning of this production was up to audience for interpretation. This factor led the production to be appropriate for the audience. With this creative freedom it creates a great play for anyone, because the person is responsible for what they learn from the production. Therefore, there is no specific meaning other than the one the audience member creates for themselves. It is more of a “what do you believe was going on?”
Play is one of the most important qualities’ of a child, they are born with the innate drive to play, this means they are born with the determination that they want to play, and it is natural and built into them. Every child needs to have play in their lives, it is a very important part towards their social, emotional, physical and intellectual development. Play is how children learn new skills and how they develop, it is not only fun for children, it helps to build their confidence up, they also feel loved safe and happy when they have the opportunity to play. One of the rights children have is to play, they should be able to have the freedom and time to play in the setting and in general. For example, the United Nations Conventions on rights
ARTICLE SUMMARY “Reclaiming the Power of Play” by Stephen T. Asma is an article about how there should be more philosophical studies appreciating the intrinsic value of play. In this article, Asma writes about how play is important and how it is important not just because of its extrinsic value but its intrinsic value. Yet, philosophical writing currently doesn’t reflect that and should do so.
My Philosophy as an Early Childhood Educator I believe that children are young learners that can develop new skills through play, hands-on, and using concrete materials. As Friedrich Frobel once stated that play is a key role to explore the environment and learn from their experiences beginning from birth. This reflects why it’s important to have early education to build the base and the basic skills for their future development. There are many theories and pioneers that have helped us built and enforce our knowledge in Early Childhood Education field including children with any special needs.
The process of play through different stages such as parallel play, solitary play and collaborative play are essential in the education process and development in children. My classroom will encompass structured and unstructured play to help students learn and develop. Play will include this such as children working together in playing an educational game, doing theater together and art. Less structured play as free playtime inside or outside of the classroom will be used daily. During play I will observe my students to see how they interact with each other, how they are developing physically and emotional and use these observations to develop the best possible educational environment.
