ABSTRACT
The UK has a long tradition of reflective, play-based practice in early years and infant education which is currently being lost in England in a plethora of prescription. The National Strategies in Literacy and Numeracy have done enormous disservice to the understanding of play because, in practitioners’ minds, play is divorced from the required outcomes. Children (and practitioners) have been put under great pressure to reach externally imposed goals: neither children nor adults perform well under pressure because it narrows thinking rather than encourages divergent responses. Young children need to be free from a sense of failure if they are to thrive (Palmer 2007). Play relieves the pressure and is highly effective in generating flexible and creative thinking (Whitebread 2007). Play also generates the concrete experiences which underpin abstract thinking and the ability to use symbols (Bowman et al. 2000). As Elkind (2008) states:
Play is not a luxury but rather a crucial dynamic of healthy physical, intellectual and social-emotional development at all ages.
