Understanding Learning: The Senses and the Part They Play in the

This chapter focuses on learning and shows how all aspects of learning can be stimulated through play. The seminal and current works of Howard Gardner (1983, 2007) will be analysed in relation to children’s learning in the early years. Sometimes it can be difficult to see how ‘educational aims’ which cover all age groups can be fostered when children are small, so this chapter gives examples of children’s play and explains how the aims are being met. In so doing it shows how the properties of play fulfil the current aims of education. As in Chapters 1 and 2, the text is organised around answering questions that parents and practitioners ask.