Making Play Accessible

What is play to you?

What are the benefits of play for children?

Classroom Observations

– What is/are the child(ren) doing that makes you think this is a child/children who struggles with play? What is/are the child(ren) doing instead of playing?

– Are there certain areas of the classroom or specific activities where you see a child/children struggle with play?

– How do you respond or how do other adults in the classroom respond when a child struggles with play?

What is play?

“Play is child’s work.” Maria Montessori

“Play is what we enjoy while we do it.” John Dewey

“Play may be defined as behavior that is intrinsically motivated, freely chosen, process oriented and

pleasurable.” J.E. Johnson and J. Ershler

“Play is pleasurable, enjoyable. Play has no extrinsic goals. Play is spontaneous and voluntary. Play involves some active engagement on the part of the player.” C. Garvey

What is Play?

“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.” Frederick

Froebel

Play is an experimental dialogue with the environment.” Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeld

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.” Ralph Waldo-Emerson

“Through play, children construct knowledge. Young children learn best when they can figure out problems. Piaget and his collaborators have demonstrated this scientifically. The joy for teachers, then is to not teach, but to help children teach themselves.”

-Constance Kamii

Direct vs. Indirect Learning

• Indirect – Learning as a result of another person’s experience or learning.

• Direct – is getting involved in an experience yourself

• Young children need direct hands on experiences in order to learn. They are not ready to learn things indirectly

• Concrete experiences with people and materials in their environment help children build the foundation for dealing with abstract ideas when they are older

Characteristics of Play

• Requires active participation

• Intrinsically motivated

• Play process is what is important to the child

• Play is real to children

• Play should be an enjoyable and fun process for all children

Basic Play Skills

The ability to:• initiate play choices• maintain a focus in play• stay with an activity• create and experiment• use a variety of play materials and activities• enjoy play• join a group• communicate and negotiate wants and needs

Different Avenues of Play• Play with objects

• Dramatic Play

• Games with Rules

• Social Play

• Sociodramatic Play

ADULTS ROLE IN PLAY

Learning to Follow a Child’s Lead

• Learning to follow a child’s lead helps adults take a positive role in supporting play. When parents and teachers become “assistants” they allow children to direct their own play.

• What does it mean to follow the child’s lead?

Riddle Me This

How is following the child’s lead like…

Being a waitress in a restaurant?

Being a sales clerk in a clothing store?

Following the lead

• Resist the temptation to “show how” or “tell the child what to do”

• Children will learn if we give them enough time, practice and the kind of support and guidance that helps them trust their own capabilities as learners.

• Always ask: Was the play situation my agenda or the child’s?

Additional Roles• Observer/Onlooker

• Stage Manager

• Parallel Play

• Co-Playing

• Play Leader

Less Intrusive

More Intrusive

Finding Out Why Children Struggle with Play

Discovering the Strategies to Support Them

Selecting Appropriate Strategies

• Adapt the environment

• Select or adapt an activity or routine

• Adapt materials

• Adapt requirements or instruction

• Provide assistance (adult or peer)

The Child Who Wanders

• All children wander sometimes but when they do it consistently it interferes with constructive play and learning. Identify a pattern of wandering before considering it a play problem.

The Child Who Wanders

Viewing Look Fors:

• Impact of wandering

• Characteristics of children that wander

• Strategies for Supporting children that wanders

A Few Final Tips

• Plan out play extenders on your lesson plan

• Have the play extender visuals ready in case you cannot spend a lot of time with one given child

• Have visuals of choices ready to go to share with individual children (allows choice, but with guidance)

The Child Who is Ignored

• Viewing Look Fors:

• Impact of being Ignored

• Characteristics of a child who is ignored

• Interventions for a child who is ignored

Building Children’s ConfidenceTeachers support children when they • think in terms of positive goals instead of

focusing on negative behavior that may become a self-defeating label for a child

• match expectations for a child to that child’s developmental level, challenging but not pushing

• notice a child’s accomplishments and take time to acknowledge, encourage, and comment on them when they occur

The Child Who Dabbles

Viewing Look Fors:

• Impact of dabbling

• Characteristics of children that dabble

• Intervention strategies for children that dabble

Play Limitation Considerations

• Think about child(ren) in play who….– Has limited communication skills– Is unable to move through his/her

environment in the same way as the other children

– Unable to grasp and hold on to play materials– Does not know how to approach another child

to initiate or join play

Activity Time!

• Consider each of the play challenges

• Review table 5.2 (pg. 58-59) and Curriculum Modifications by Type

• Determine additional strategies that you can use based on these play challenges

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS IN PLAY

Embedded Learning Opportunities

“Are used to create short teaching episodes within ongoing classroom activities and routines. The teaching episodes focus on a child’s individual learning objectives and are embedded within activities and routines; the instructional component is planned ahead of time.”

Sandall, S., Shwartz, I. (2008). Building blocks: For teaching preschoolers with special needs (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Paul H. Brooke’s Publishing Co.

More on Embedding Learning

• Planned opportunities for teachers to teach and support children

• Must have a match between routine and planned play activity and the skill to be taught

• Teachers select and plan for the goals that will be embedded into the play situation

• Teachers consider the strategies in which they will embed the learning opportunity

Getting Started

• Assess the quality of your classroom• Planning the classroom schedule• Planning the classroom lesson plan with

high quality play activities• Planning for an individual child• Clarify the problem or skill you want to develop• Construct an activity schedule• Implement and evaluate the plan

Things to consider

Consider the environment:• Does the environment provide a variety of play

experiences that interest the child and are developmentally a match for the child? Are activities available for children to investigate and expand upon over the course of time or do they change daily?

Consider the classroom schedule:• Do children spend the majority of the day in child

directed, hands on play? Is there a balance of time in activities? Have you considered the needs of the children?

Important Factors

• Maximize on a child’s interests and/or preferences (how do you gather this information?)

• Provide many opportunities across day that are a good match (play activities, routines, planned activities)

Video Examples

• From the Connect website, select either block play or water play

• Discuss how this child struggled with play due to communication

• When watching the video-point out that the staff did not take the child aside to teach the needed skill, but worked with him in the play situation

Child Activity Matrix

Daily Schedule

Target Skill Interacts with materials

Responds to questions

Arrival

Circle Time

Guided Play

Snack

Outside

Classroom Activity Schedule

Ellie Braden Joey Jill

CircleGoal/skill

Guided Play

Snack

Outside

Activity

• Consider a child you are currently supporting in your classroom

• Choose a target skill that the child needs

• Consider the schedule and lesson plan revise as necessary

• Create an activity matrix using good matches across the day to work on target skills maximizing on the child’s interests. Consider how you will set the context and how you will provide feedback based on the child’s response

Small Group Discussion Prompts• How does problems with play interfere

with children’s participation in your program?

• How can we organize/plan for the use of the strategies for children struggling with play? How is this represented in an embedding schedule?

Small Group Reflection Prompts

• Does our current daily schedule allow children time to “play”?

• Will the strategies discussed today address the challenges we are facing in making play accessible and engaging to children?

• What can I try before our next session?

• What questions do we still have?

Your Assignment

• Select one play strategy to try prior to next session

and/or

• Create an embedding schedule

• Share the impact at our next session