Promoting Learning Through Play in Daycare

When I was pregnant my son, I remembered asking a friend of mine who had sent her 30 month old son to daycare what her son does her 2 1/2 year old does in school. She thought for a moment and answered "All they do is play all day". When my son was a little older, I remembered watching him and was amazed at how purposeful he played. Every block he stacks with a purpose. Even rolling his toy car across the carpet seemed purposeful. He'd imagine lanes and traffic lights as his toy cars zipped across carpet, only to have all of them congregate at one corner of the room as that was the car park where all the cars were suppoed to be parked. It was then that I truly appreciated the role of play in a pre-schoolers life.

There are so many reasons why he needed to play. He uses play to practise his motor skills, to build on his imagination, to develop ideas about how the world around him works and even critical thinking skills. Play is basically how they learn and it is important for educators to recognise the role of play in a pre-schoolers learning journey and the effectiveness of learning through play.

Learning Through Play
But is learning through play effective? Well.... let's try this. Try to recall a song we really love. Whenever we hear that song and it will bring back certain memories and elicit a certain response from us, either feelings of anger, fear, sadness or happiness. We have somewhat been "conditioned" to associate that particular song with a certain memory and therefore it elicits a certain reaction. In psychology, that is called classical conditioning.

Therefore, in learning through play, a child learns to associate the act of learning with something positive, and for pre-schoolers and toddlers, nothing is more positive than playing and having fun.

Role of A Daycare Teacher
To teach through play, the daycare teacher needs to be able to respond to a child at play and enhance and guide his learning. For example, when a child is playing with his favourite toy truck, the daycare teacher should take the opportunity to introduce new words or concepts associated with the truck e.g.
* increase the child's vocabulary by teaching him new words associated with the truck
* teach him about the world around him by sharing with him about the various functions of a truck
* encourage his imagination by asking him to create a story or a song related about the truck

Learning through play requires the daycare teacher to look beyond learning outcomes, i.e. not pegging a child's development to how much they have learnt, and focus on moulding learning attitudes.

Not only must daycare teachers be educated about the benefits of learning through play, the school should also be responsible for educating the parents about the positive benefits of learning through play and seek to mould a generation of lifelong learners.

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