Olivia Williams

Capstone Paper Outline: The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Development

Introduction: (Literature Review Intro)

Visit any playground in the world and one will see a universal truth; children of all ages
engaged in play.
From an infant holding a rattle, to four year olds playing dress-up, to seven year olds
playing tag, children enjoy play that is unstructured and without adult interference.
It only follows to assume there is something very important about play in the lives of
young kids.
Why is play an essential part of early childhood development?
Play is a childs natural, instinctive way of learning valuable lessons about the world
around them.
With increasing emphasis in our culture on developing academic skills in children at
younger and younger ages, our children are losing a natural, life-enhancing skill that is
crucial to healthy development.
o Thesis: Play is essential for healthy cognitive, social, and emotional development
in early childhood.

Play & Cognitive Development:

Connection: Play is essential to cognitive development in early childhood because
o Play allows children to learn about the world around them
o Play provides foundation for future academic success
o Play assists with the development of language and literacy skills

Much of the research on play demonstrates its relationship to cognitive development in

early childhood.
According to Kenneth R. Ginsburg, play allows children from a very early age to engage
and interact with the world around them which contributes to healthy cognitive
development (Ginsburg, 2007).
Senior Early Childhood Specialist, Shannon Lockhart, suggests that working memory,
self-regulation, language, and the ability to organize, focus, plan, strategize, prioritize,
and initiate are all key cognitive functions developed through the assistance of play
(Lockhart, 2011).
Play, Cognitive Development, & Academic Success
Many experts agree that play provides the foundation for learning skills that can
determine later academic success.

In addition once children reach the age in which they are in an academic environment
play can help children adjust to the school setting, and therefore foster school
engagement, and enhance childrens learning readiness, learning behaviors, and problemsolving skills.
Play and recess during the school day can even increase childrens capacity to learn new
information (Ginsburg, 2007).
This hypothesis was supported by a study conducted by Han, Moore, Vukelich and Buell,
in which they examined the effects of play on how effectively preschoolers learn.
The study divided up a group of 118 low-performing students into two groups.
One group received Explicit Instructional Vocabulary Protocol (EVIP), and the other
received a shortened EVIP plus a play session (EVIP + Play).
Study results showed that the children who received EVIP + Play showed more growth
on receptive and expressive vocabulary tests and also met the benchmark on receptive
vocabulary as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Han, Moore, Vukelich,
& Buell, 2010).
Child Initiated Play & Cognitive Development
Further research examines the relationship between play and cognitive development with
regards to child-initiated play.
When children determine the direction and content of their own play, they have many
opportunities to develop language and literacy skills.
In instances where children are allowed to initiate play, they are able to express their
choices in words and interact and speak freely with other children and adults (Bodrova &
Leong, 2007).
A cross-national longitudinal study conducted by The International Association for the
Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Preprimary Project, found that childrens
language performance at age seven was significantly higher when teachers had allowed
children to choose their own activities with regards to play at the age of four (Montie,
Xiang, & Schweinhart, 2006).

Play & Social Development:

Connection: Play is essential to social development in early childhood because

o Play helps children form relationships with others
o Play introduces social cues and concepts
Experts agree that maturation and socialization develop during early childhood through
play.
All children need to learn appropriate social skills.
Social skills are behaviors that promote positive interaction with others and the
environment.
Like any developing skill, learning social skills requires practice and repetition.

Desired social behaviors are taught through a variety of experiences starting from the
early childhood.
Play & Building Relationships
According to David Elkind, one of the easiest ways parents can help their children
develop socially is by playing with them.
Parent-child play has been shown to contribute to a childs ability to give structure to
early social interactions
Joining in play builds relationships in a climate of fun and puts parents in the perfect
position to teach skills for sharing and cooperation and introducing concepts such as
winning or losing.
In addition, play gives children a chance to learn about more subtle social cues like body
language and vocal intonations (Elkind, 2008).
Through play children also strengthen their ability to interact with their peers by
practicing social skills that include sharing, taking turns, conversing, and being able to
stay with a specific play theme (Sohn, 2014).
Five Stages of Play & Social Interaction
Partens Five Stages of Play are marked by different types of social interaction
in which children engage:
Onlooker Play: Playing passively by watching or conversing with other children engaged
in play activities
Solitary Play: Playing by oneself
Parallel Play: Playing, even in the middle of a group, while remaining engrossed in one's
own activity. Children playing parallel to each other sometimes use each other's toys, but
always maintain their independence.
Associative Play: When children share materials and talk to each other, but do not
coordinate play objectives or interests
Cooperative Play: When children organize themselves into roles with specific goals in
mind
Play, Social Development, & Academic Success
Time spent playing and its relationship with social development has been directly linked
to school success.
Elkind supports this theory stating, All of this game playing and social learning makes it
easier for children to learn in a school setting where they are interacting with adults and
have the basic social skills that are the basis for formal learning (Elkind, 2008).

Play & Emotional Development:

Connection: Play is essential to emotional development in early childhood because
o Play strengthens the bonds between parent and child
o Play allows children to learn to express their feelings and emotions

Many researchers consider play as an important part of healthy emotional development.

Through play, children can release emotions, work through feelings, and understand their
world better by play-acting in situations they can control.
The give and-take patterns of play allow children rich opportunities to practice the skills
necessary to establish a healthy emotional development.
Play, Emotional Development, & Parent Bonds
In his article The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and
Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds, Ginsburg details how play helps to build and
strengthen emotional bonds within the family.
Childrens healthy emotional development is mediated by nurturing relationships with
consistent caregivers.
Ginsburg relates how play allows parents to view the world through their childs eyes
and, therefore, help parents learn to communicate or offer guidance more effectively.
Play provides a window for parents to experience and understand their children and a
vehicle for creating a solid bond between parent and child.
In addition Ginsburgs article explains how play can even help younger, less verbal
children to be able to express themselves, including their frustrations, therefore allowing
their parents an opportunity to better understand their childs emotional needs.
Above all, the intensive engagement and interactions that occur while playing tell
children that their parents are fully paying attention to them, thus establishing a stronger
parent-child connection (Ginsburg, 2007).
Emotional Development & Pretend Play
Play supports emotional development by providing a way to express and cope with
feelings. Pretend play helps children express feelings in the following four ways:
o Simplifying events by creating an imaginary character, plot, or setting to match
their emotional state. A child afraid of the dark, for example, might eliminate
darkness or night from the play episode
o Compensating for situations by adding forbidden acts to pretend play. A child
may, for example, eat cookies and ice cream for breakfast in play, whereas in
reality this would not be permitted.
o Controlling emotional expression by repeatedly reenacting unpleasant or
frightening experiences. For example, a child might pretend to have an accident
after seeing a real traffic accident on the highway.
o Avoiding adverse consequences by pretending that another character, real or
imaginary, commits inappropriate acts and suffers the consequences (Isenberg &
Jalongo, 2006).

Decline of Play:

Connection: Play functions as the means in which children learn how to

o learn how to make decisions, solve problems, exert self-control, and follow rules
o learn to regulate their emotions
o make friends and learn to get along with others
o experience happiness
o Therefore, the decline of play in society can lead to negative mental health
(Gray, 2011).
In the United States childrens free play with other children has declined sharply.
Ginsberg reports that a variety of factors have reduced play in our modern world
including a hurried lifestyle, changes in family structure, increased attention to academics
and enrichment activities.
His premise is that parents should not fall prey to advertising that claims children need to
get ahead by participating in multiple enrichment activities, but instead need to return to
free, unstructured play as an important part of their daily lives.
Peter Gray suggests that the decline in play has contributed to the rise in anxiety,
depression, suicide, feelings of helplessness, and narcissism of young people (Gray,
2011).

Conclusion:

Play is as natural to children as learning to crawl, walk, or say their first words.
A wealth of research clearly shows that play can benefit children in numerous valuable
ways.
Unfortunately, in our modern world play is often being overlooked both at home and at
school as we all trend towards pushing children in more academic pursuits.
Studies have proven that play is essential for healthy cognitive, social, and emotional
development in early childhood.
It is therefore important for parents and educators to make time for play, both at home
and at school, in the daily life of every child.