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Children learn through both direct and indirect play. Child day care providers can take advantage of opportunities for social and emotional learning through play activities. In Part 2 of our interview with expert, Meghan McGinley Crowe, executive director of literacy for Little Sprouts, Inc., Crowe explains the importance of learning through play.

OwnADaycare: How does play lead to real life learning in the area of language and literacy development? What are some examples of play activities preschool teachers can offer in this area?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: In college, I studied Russian language and culture.  I had taken a 1-semester class in high school and was fascinated with the guttural, elegance of the language.  Formal study of the language allowed me to learn the basics and pass the tests, but I have very little practical knowledge left.

However, I also was part of an exchange program to Russia where I lived with a family for a month.   The six-year old and I practiced our respective language skills on each other in a low-stress, playful environment and the vocabulary I picked up from this young girl stays with me, where my college level education faded quickly.

Being comfortable to try new language and practice pragmatics is best done through play and teaches not only vocabulary, but grammar, sentence structure, and usage.  Every time a preschooler makes a word past tense like “standed” or plural like “feets”, it is proof that they are playing with language rules and have learned how to generically by adding a suffix to a word they already know.  Though incorrect, this also proves a child is not just mimicking an adult, but rather truly experimenting with language.  Teachers and parents should encourage this practice while gently modeling the correct version of the word.

OwnADaycare: How does play lead to real life learning in the area of physical development? What are some examples of play activities preschool teachers can offer in this area?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: At its core, play is a physical, kinetic activity.  Sitting at a table playing a literacy game, for example, can be a great opportunity to build fine motor skills.  A teacher could give her preschoolers plastic tweezers and cover a table with paper-cut out letters and ask the students to pick out all of the B’s, or the letters in their name.  Not only are her students building their letter identification, they are practicing the skills essential for later writing development.

Gross motor play, including outside time, is full of pretend play and physical activity.  This type of play is often easiest for an adult to enter without disrupting the flow of the activity.  Adults should observe for a few moments before entering the game, and then ask, “What are we playing?” to have the stage set for the pretend story at hand.  Very quickly, she will find herself running, laughing, and enjoying as much physical development as her young playmates.

OwnADaycare: What are examples of good verbal cues that preschool teachers can use to enhance learning through play?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: When offering implicit, incidental learning opportunities (opposed to explicit instruction), teachers should ensure all learning is playful and a natural part of the game at hand.  Teaching new vocabulary is one of the best instructional inserts to gameplay.  Listen to the conversations the children are having and find natural ways to have fun with new words.  When playing on the playground, a teacher can model “tossing” a ball, gently, swiftly, or energetically.  In the block area, a teacher can model creating different housing units such as a condominium, a hut, or a mansion.

Regardless of the games the students create themselves, teachers can give a good start to any lesson with the hook, “would you like to play a game with me?”  Everything is more fun with coated with a playful focus.

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Children learn through both direct and indirect play. Child day care providers can take advantage of opportunities for social and emotional learning through play activities. In our interview with expert, Meghan McGinley Crowe, executive director of literacy for Little Sprouts, Inc., Crowe explains the importance of learning through play.

OwnADaycare: What is the importance of learning through play?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: Just like adults, children have to be engaged in new learning processes.  Learning something that you aren’t intrinsically interested in will not keep your attention, nor easily commit to your long term memory.

Every day is a learning experience for a preschooler.  Each moment is full of brand new experiences.  So many times, adults take for granted experiences like picking a blade of grass or touching a brick wall for the first time, but these encounters are rife with new learning for a young child.  Hands-on, playful learning experiences not only build interest in the subject, but set off a preschooler’s experiences in learning as positive, joy filled ones which they will want to continue for years to come.

OwnADaycare: How does play lead to real life learning in the area of social and emotional learning? What are some examples of play activities in this area?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: Though playful experiences can be solitary, in a classroom setting, play is almost always a social, small group activity.  Child-directed play allows children the opportunity to experiment with new learning- vocabulary, background knowledge, and academic concepts- with their peers.  Children can support each other in using this new expertise, thereby also building social-emotional literacy.

For example, a preschool classroom was set around the theme of transportation.  The teacher built the dramatic play area as an airport to allow children to play with this concept they were learning about each day.  During my visit, I entered the play of a group of four children in this airport to marvel at the ticket stand, metal detector, and luggage area created by the class in the 4×5 area of the classroom.  Children were talking animatedly to each other and my interest was quickly diverted to the conversation.

Child 1: Where do you wanna go?

Child 2: I want to go to Chuck E Cheese please.

Child 1: ‘K, here’s your ticket.  Take your suitcase.

I patiently awaited my turn in line as well.

Me: Can I buy a ticket too?

Child 1: ‘K, where do you wanna go?

Me: I was thinking of going to London, can I take an international flight from here?

Child 1: Yep, here’s your ticket.  You have to take off your shoes though.

The children were clearly playing with new ideas they had explored in books about airports, and facts about airplanes and incorporated the personal knowledge they had experienced traveling themselves.  Playful exposure to the travel theme solidified new learning while giving the class a direction in their small group play.

OwnADaycare: How does play lead to real life learning in the area of cognitive development? What are some examples of play activities preschool teachers can offer in this area?

Meghan McGinley Crowe: Normally functioning adults need at least 15 exposures to a new idea before it is committed to short-term memory, and 35 exposures to commit it to long term memory.  Other neurological research predicts that before you can learn a new concept, you need to have at least 60% knowledge of the topic already.  For example, before I can learn about glaciers, I have to know about snow, ice, mountains, valleys, and rivers.

Children build these exposures to new concepts through play.  Each playful experience builds the cognitive development of learning a new fact and committing it to long term memory.  When studying more complex subjects such as Outer Space or Dinosaurs, teachers should remember that they are not expecting their preschooler to master this new subject, but are rather building the 60% knowledge needed when they learn about the topic in elementary or middle school.

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Learning through Play Photo by James Emery

Directed and undirected play is an important part of learning for children. Daycare jobs include allowing children to play naturally and directing their play as well.  Play helps children learn new concepts and problem-solving skills in a natural, fun way. Gale Kelleher, director of Rainbow Nursery School in New York explains the importance of learning through play. Kelleher describes how play in daycare centers leads to real life learning in various areas of development.

OwnADaycare: What is the importance of learning through play?

Gale Kelleher: Learning through play introduces and teaches new skills with a happy, comfortable and fun approach.

OwnADaycare How does play lead to real life learning in the area of social and emotional learning? What are some examples of play activities in this area?

Gale Kelleher: Play in a classroom leads to real life learning through experiences of sharing, turn -taking, listening, being helpful and kind to others.  It teaches social interaction skills and enhances responsibilities. Example:  Waiting your turn to get on line, answer questions, do a classroom job,   listen and help your friends, clean your place after snack, etc.

OwnADaycare How does play lead to real life learning in the area of cognitive development? What are some examples of play activities preschool teachers can offer in this area?

Gale Kelleher: Concrete learning and problem solving through play enhances higher thinking skills.  Example:  Role playing, teaching basic steps to learn a specific task and modeling an activity.

OwnADaycare How does play lead to real life learning in the area of language and literacy development? What are some examples of play activities preschool teachers can offer in this area?

Gale Kelleher: Through play skills the children learn to develop their vocabulary.  They learn the meaning of new words and develop and sharpen their thought process.  This is through receptive and expressive language.

OwnADaycare How does play lead to real life learning in the area of physical development? What are some examples of play activities preschool teachers can offer in this area?

Gale Kelleher: The children improve their physical development through play.  Such activities include skipping, jumping, hopping, ball throwing, swinging on swings sand box play and slides.  These are some activities that develop their gross motor skills.  Fine motor skills are developed through activities such as cutting, coloring, play dough, puzzles and drawing.

OwnADaycare What are examples of good verbal cues that preschool teachers can use to enhance learning through play?

Gale Kelleher: Some verbal cues might be: “Use your words, look at your friends and talk to them.  Wait your turn, be nice, share and express your wants and needs”.

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All child care services must incorporate some type of learning through play. Your child care business should focus on a strong preschool curriculum that builds learning opportunities directly into play so that learning develops at the same pace as the growing child. Children by nature are curious, active, and eager to learn and try new things. To keep them that way, preschoolers need a readiness curriculum that encourages “playful learning.”

Different types of play support many different types of development:

• Singing, with movement develops memory and language, social participation and imitation, rhythm, rhyme and body awareness
• Undirected playing encourages social skills, such as cooperation, taking turns and following instructions
• Hands on letter play builds pre-writing skill. The teacher shows children how to make letters with dough, wood pieces, or magnetic stamps. They learn letters (and numbers) in multi-sensory active play.
• Coloring and drawing with small crayons help children develop a good pencil grip and developmentally appropriate pages make for easy coloring and drawing. Building structures and simple shapes with wood pieces leads naturally to drawing success.

At its core, play is a physical, kinetic activity. Sitting at a table playing a literacy game, for example, can be a great opportunity to build fine motor skills. A teacher could give a child of preschooler age plastic tweezers and cover a table with paper-cut out letters and ask the students to pick out all of the B’s, or the letters in their name. Not only are her students building their letter identification, they are practicing the skills essential for later writing development.

Gross motor play, including outside time, is full of pretend play and physical activity. This type of play is often easiest for an adult to enter without disrupting the flow of the activity. Adults should observe for a few moments before entering the game, and then ask, “What are we playing?” A simple verbal cue can set the stage for the pretend story at hand. Very quickly, she will find herself running, laughing, and enjoying as much physical development as her young playmates.

In pretend play, children use their imaginations and generate different ideas and images. This helps them to learn to think of different ways to solve a problem, either in a creativity task or in daily life. Children who have good pretend play ability can think of more things to do in a situation (like being at the doctor). This ability is usually independent of intelligence. Pretend play also relates to ability to understand the emotions of others and to take the perspective of the other. This is probably because children take many different roles when they play. For example, they pretend to be the mother, baby, boy, girl, teacher, dentist, etc.

Do not discount the importance of learning through play. Play allows children to learn through their natural curiosity about the world at large. Daycare providers should take advantage of the opportunity to facilitate this type of learning by offering play activities that foster creativity, imagination, and problem-solving skills like negotiation.

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