Outdoor Play: Adult Roles and Safety

• Play development notes have been given

Role of Adults

• The role of the organizer involves written and verbal instructions
• Organizers should model and engage in rehearsal
• Organizers should organize materials with the consideration of needs and goals
• Observers often have overlooked responsibilities
• Observers should observe children's behavior and interactions with other children
• Supervisors focus on safety, how students use materials, and playground upkeep
• Supervisors can walk around the playground, observe behavior, and interact with children
• Supervisors should avoid talking to other adults to prevent distraction from children's behaviors
• Evaluators assess behavior

Outdoor Play Concerns

• Main concerns regarding outside play are injuries, the safety of materials, and the condition of outdoor play things
• An example of an outdoor play concern is: Is the playground safe? Is it rusty? Is the swing loose?

Outdoor Play Environments for Infants and Toddlers

• When designing these enviroments, consider different motor skills, such as space for running and climbing stairs
• Include toys like pretend play items, blocks, sand pits, clay, etc.
• A slide for infants and toddlers doesn't need to be ten feet high
• Outdoor enviroments should be proportionate to size and development

Outdoor Play Environments for Preschoolers and Kindergarten

• Increase the scale compared to infants/toddlers'
• Introduce space for more complex motor skill development, like monkey bars

Outdoor Play Environments for Primary School Age Children

• Increase the scale with more room to run around and play larger organized games

Ways of Play and Benefits

• Vygotsky created the zone of proximal development during play which is a zone that children move from when accomplishing a task or skill with the assistance of each other and being able to complete the task independently
• A sociocultural view of play emphasizes planning for play and language usage during play
• Maria Montessori pioneered the use of observation to inform instruction
• She believed that teachers should observe the child's use of materials to understand the child's level of knowledge and confidence in using the materials
• When a child reaches a sensitive period, they move to the next level or challenge as they try to match their own readiness with the materials that are available

Social Development

• Mildred Parten first identified observable behaviors that reflect social development
• She described social play behaviors of children during outdoor play which becomes more complex with age
• Parten classified social play into six categories:
• Unoccupied behavior
• Onlooker behavior
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Associative play
• Cooperative play

Motor Skills

• Fine motor skills involve small muscles, like when cutting
• Gross motor skills involve big muscles, like kicking
• Locomotor skills involve moving, like skipping

Benefits of Outdoor Play

• Outdoor play encourages physical movement and good health
• It creates a unique environment for learning that stimulates brain development
• It encourages different levels of social participation as children self-select playmates
• It develops standards of morality during interactions with peers and more competent peers
• Outdoor play provides opportunities to engage in freely chosen play

Types of Observation

• Class activity includes:
• Checklist
• Rating scale
• Running record
• Anecdotal records
• Event samplings

Understanding Cognitive Development

• Piaget, Vygotsky, and Maria Montessori have influenced how observations are used to understand children

Piagetian-Inspired Stages of Play

• Piaget (1951-1962) described three levels of cognitive development reflected in play behavior
• Play becomes more complex with age
• Stage 1 is sensorimotor play which occurs from birth to age 2
• Stage 2 is symbolic play which occurs from age 2 to 7
• Stage 3 is games with rules which occurs from age 7 to 11
• During the first two years of group 2, stage 1 - sensorimotor play, functional and practice play dominate
• Exploration play occurs through senses which strengthens neurological connection and object play when grasp, where functional vs indiscriminate play are object guided

War Play

• War play involves using weapons and is violent and aggressive
• Swords, guns, etc can be used during war play
• War play is influenced by video games like Call of Duty and Fortnite, and also shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and may be influenced by being raised in a military family
• War play can create confidence, physical activity, moral development, collaboration, and imagination

Video Play Example

• This example features superhero play which is both functional play
• The video had superhero play when the hulk fought another superhero
• He also had collections of action figures
• The actions figures were used as dominoes making them symbolic/ functional play
• This is an example of how complex play occurs, by incorporating media/ what children have seen

Play Development for Preschoolers

• Cognitive development is preoperational thinking which is a period when thought processes have not fully matured
• Egocentric thinking is when everything revolves around them
• Children view the world through their sense/ what they see and believe. Magic is real to them.

Types of Preschool Play

• Symbolic play
• Sociodramatic play
• Physical play

Symbolic Play

• Symbolic play occurs when the child uses an object or action to represent another object or idea
• Dramatic play begins to develop during the second year of life
• As the child matures, the play grows more complex

Dramatic Play

• The view of dramatic play is imitation of reality the includes orderliness, exact imitation of reality, and collective symbolism of play of roles
• Two to three year olds initially direct their play toward materials or objects when engaging in pretend play
• As children mature, they include people and assume different roles

Sociodramatic Play

• Sociodramatic play occurs among two or more children who communicate verbally and then cooperatively adjust their roles during the play episode

Six Characteristics of Sociodramatic Play

• Imitative role-play
• Make-believe with regards to objects
• Verbal make-believe
• Persistence in role play
• Interaction
• Verbal communication

Superhero Play

• Superhero play is a pretend play that may consist of heroes, villains, victims, sidekicks, and superpowers
• This type of play can help to develop social skills in the talking part of roleplaying, gaining a better understanding of right and wrong, and physical incorporating running, jumping, and more movements
• Some teachers may view it as concerning because of its unrealistic views of what somebody can do or may encourage a violent interaction between heroes and villains
• If they engage in superhero play, monitor the safety, risks, and language that is being used

Benefits of Play for Infants and Toddlers

• Cognitive development
• Social development
• Emotions
• Communication
• Physical development

Communication and Emotional Development for Infants and Toddlers

• Through play, babies develop turn-taking and communication signals skills, and start making sense of the their world
• Emotional development is heavily dependent on trust building and attachment
• Communication involves interaction, children practice taking turns and mutual reciprocal interactive play
• The two major factors impacting physical play for infants is gaining teeth and toilet training process

Practice Play for Infants and Toddlers

• The sensorimotor period
• Functional or practice play dominates during the first two years of life
• Practice body movements
• Actions are repeated for practice and exploration

Six Levels of Practice Play

• Reflective stage
• Primary circular reactions
• Secondary circular reactions
• Coordination of secondary schemes
• Tertiary circular reaction
• Inventions of new means through mental combinations
• As children develop their mobility and motor skills, they begin to incorporate more complex schemes into their play

Exploration

• An infant will spend a lot of time exploring the world through her senses
• Looking and listening are most common
• Infants spend most of their time exploring while toddlers split their time between exploration and practice play

Object Play

• Object play begins when the infants can grasp objects
• Occurs around the secondary circular reaction stage
• Object play becomes more complex as the child grows and develops
• Functional play is when a child uses the object for the function that the object was intended in her culture
• Indiscriminate play occurs when the child uses the object in an indiscriminate or stereotypical way

Symbolic Play

• Young children begin to engage in pretend play around their first birthday
• It becomes complex in the second year of life
• Three major elements in symbolic play occurs during the first two years of life:
• Decontextualization occurs when the child represents objects and actions symbolically with other objects and actions
• Decentration occurs when the child moves from focusing on self to focusing on others
• Integration involves the combination of several single schemes into a multiple-scheme play experience: These behaviors are generally observed around the second birthday
• Most of the play involves imitating reality and seems to follow the social conventions for the activity

Lev Vygotsky Theories

• Considers the social, cultural and historical factors that influence cognitive development during social interactions
• Children construct knowledge through interactions with society and culture
• Both piaget and Vygotsky differed greatly in their views of cognitive development
• Children learn during social interactions with an adult or more capable peer
• For Vygotsky, learning occurs in the zone of proximal development (ZPD)
• ZPD is the distance between the point of being capable of doing something with the assistance of others to the point of being capable of accomplishing the task alone
• For Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development is created during play
• During play "The child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behavior, in play it as though he were a head taller than himself” (Vygotsky, 1978, p 102)
• Piaget believed that play followed development, Vygotsky believed that development occurred during play because play creates the ZPD
• Essential components:
• Imaginary situation
• Rules and roles are embedded in an imaginary situation
• For Vygotsky, play contributed to the development of language, memory, reasoning, and social skills

Modern vs Postmodern Theories

• More Modern Theories include:
• Arousal Modulation Theory
• Communication Theory
• Cognitive Adaptation Theory
• Theory of Mind
• Postmodern Theorists/ Theories include:
• Brian Sutton-Smith
• Gail Cannella

Theories of Play

• There are many
• Most influential theories of play were developed by Freud, Erickson, Piaget, and Vygotsky
• Classic theories, modern theories and postmodern theories

Early Figures - Play

• John Locke (1632-1704) english philosopher, exiled in France:
• Children are a blank slate and can learn through play when adults use toys to teach concepts
• He created the first wooden alphabet blocks
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): Children are innately good and nature is a primary force in learning
• Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827): Children should be free to explore and they learn through action (learn by doing)
• Freidrich Froebel (1782-1852):
• He invented kindergarten
• He believed that children learned through play
• He influenced many future theorists

Classic Theory of Play

• Surplus Energy Theory of Play states that children play because they have too much energy and play will rid them of the excess, this was made by Friedrich Van Schiller
• Herbert Spencer was the one who identified this as "surplus energy" theory

Child Study Movement

• John Dewey was an American Educator
• He used play and hand-on learning as a foundation for curriculum
• He rejected Froebel's view of play stating "In play, the activity its own end, instead of having ulterior results.” (1973)
• Patty Smith Hill:
• She questioned Froebel's methods
• Used G. Staley Hall's work to develop an approach called free play
• Created the first hollow blocks

Psychoanalytic Theory

• The Psychoanalytic Theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and then extended by Erik Erickson
• From this perspective, play benefits social and emotional development
• They differed in the area of Erickson's explanation of unconscious motivation in terms of psychosocial – not psychosexual forces
• The work of Freud and Erickson has influenced research on play throughout the twenty century and continues to influence play therapy
• Maria Montessori stated that "Play is the work of the child"
• Montessori was the Founder of Montessori Method of education
• The first House of Children (Casa dei Bambini) opened in 1907
• Developed a theory of teaching that focuses on developing the child's independence and cognitive ability through hands-on activities
• Play in montessori schools is restricted, pretending has no place in Montessori education

Constructivist Theory of Play

• Jean Piaget is famous for creating his theory of cognitive development
• He is well known for his contributions to play theory
• Intellectual adaptation results from the combined opposition of two invariant processes: accommodation and assimilation
• Play provides a relaxed atmosphere in which learning can easily occur
• Play is NOT the same as learning
• Cognitive development requires both assimilation and adaptation, while play is assimilation without accommodation
• Assimilation occurs when the individual fits information into existing mental structures
• Accommodation= occurs when children adjust their schemas or mental structures to accept new knowledge
• He thought the child's intellectual level was reflected in her play, and his stages of play development mirror his stages of cognitive development
• The types of play according to piaget are:
• Practice or functional play
• Dramatic play
• Games with rules

Importance of Play

• Play is universal and has a connection with learning

Through Play Children Learn/Hone

• Social skills
• Cultural understanding
• Prosocial behaviors
• Language and literacy skills
• Cognitive skills/brain development
• Motor skills
• Regulate emotions

What Play Is

• Froebel stated "Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul”
• Individuals engage in an activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose
• Glover stated "Play enables children to build and extend their knowledge and skills as they interact with their environment, with others, and their own”
• Rubin and his peers viewed play as a behavioral disposition, as observable behaviors, and as a context, and they include six factors in the disposition of play

Factors in Dispositions of Play

• Play is pleasurable
• Play is voluntary or freely chosen
• Play is non-literal or symbolic
• Play requires active engagement
• Play is free of external rules
• Play focused on means rather than results

History of Children's Play

• Before children work or help their families in their household
• There was a variation across a period of times with various categories which included: region, socioeconomic status, race /ethnicity, and gender
• Similarities (across contexts):
• Play site
• The material (toys and playthings)
• The playmates
• Tensions between self constructed and adult-structured play

Play Throughout History

• Play in early america (pre 1800s)
• Play in the early nineteenth century
• Play in the late nineteenth century
• Golden age of play
• Commercialization and co=optation of children