Play and exploration

The next three chapters of The Growing Child will discuss and consider how young children learn, rather than the emphasis being placed on the content or curriculum of learning and development. These central commitments to ‘Play and Exploration’, ‘Active Learning’ and ‘Creativity and Critical Thinking’ are identified in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework2 and have been highlighted as quality indicators for effective learning. The Tickell review of the EYFS released in March 2011 fully support these indicators as the three ‘characteristics of effective teaching and learning’ and these have been endorsed in the new framework, EYFS 2012.3 This focus is significant as it divides the ‘content or curriculum’ from the ‘process of learning’, and allows practitioners to incorporate their understanding and knowledge of child development into their practice in order to support each child’s progress. By recognising and acknowledging how young children learn and how skills are rehearsed and mastered, practitioners are empowering children to become confident, capable life-long learners. As a mother of six and an educator of young children for almost thirty years working with a range of families and settings, I have had countless opportunities of observing young children at play. These direct and extensive first-hand experiences have helped me to recognise, value and now question the opportunities that are on offer to young children relating to physical development, sensory stimulation and their interaction with the environment. It is widely accepted by governments across the UK that all young children deserve the best start in life and each body recognises, within their current legislation, the central place of play in the early years. Go into any setting, large or small, and practitioners will endorse and engage in discussions asserting the benefits of learning through play. Evidence suggests, however, that it is down to the knowledge and skills of those individuals leading and planning young children’s daily experiences to place the child at the centre of their work, with all the challenges and difficulties this may bring. In this book, as in others from the series,

physical development will not be viewed in isolation but holistically. As children do not separate learning into boxes, therefore neither should we. In addition this chapter will reflect on the changes in society and the limitations they impose on natural play and exploration. Play is so significant to optimal child development that it has been accepted and endorsed by the United Nations as a Right of Every Child.4 However, regardless of the well-established benefits associated with play in childhood, the opportunities for free unstructured play have been markedly reduced for many children. Therefore it is important to carefully consider young children’s physical needs in relation to exciting, engaging ‘real play’ as they grow up in the ever advancing era of screen technology and ‘virtual play’. With the health and physical development of young children so high on the political agenda it is ironic that, at the start of the last century, similar concerns relating to the health and life chances of young working-class children were also under the political spotlight. At this time several pioneers emerged recognising the vital links between a healthy body and a healthy mind.5 Key influences of these early nursery pioneers will be explored in this chapter, particularly in relation to health, physical environments and play. It is important for us all working with young children and families to be able to articulate our guiding principles, not simply relying on our personal experiences and beliefs. Therefore the principles of early learning identified by Tina Bruce6 have been included in order to support staff groups to discuss and establish principles in relation to practice. These principles were formulated using evidence drawn together from the most eminent psychologists and early years pioneers and they root our work firmly in child development theory. Reflecting on the work of these pioneers, who worked determinedly over many years to improve the lives of the children, and often the families they worked with, you gain an understanding of the transformative nature of early years practice. A number of themes and discussions may emerge across the series; nevertheless, this book will offer practitioners working with young children across a variety of settings the opportunities to question practice, consider alternatives and reflect on Claxton and Carr’s term ‘ready, willing and able to learn’7 rather than the more recently discussed term ‘school readiness’.