All My Children

Andrew is happy to play with other children and has three boys with whom he particularly likes to play. As soon as the game becomes involved enough to warrant rules, e.g. ‘You are not allowed to get me when I go behind this tree’, Andrew seems to deliberately ignore the rules. Games almost always end in arguments. When an adult is setting out the rules of a table-top game, Andrew often ignores these, deliberately moving his counter in any way he sees fit. Although the adults end up barring Andrew from the games, he always makes a fuss about it. Continue Reading »

Harry is a popular boy who loves to be involved in all activities in the pre-school. He is a polite, well-behaved child who follows instructions and is confident. However, whenever there is a more physical or boisterous activity going on, Harry becomes quite out of control, very excited and appears not to be able to hear adults giving him instructions about expected behaviour. Continue Reading »

For an indoor party it’s a good thing to think of balloons — they always look festive. So do the traditional decorations for a Christmas party of paper chains, holly and ivy, tinsel and glitter, stars, shining balls and bells. But you will want other ideas for parties with a particular theme. Continue Reading »

Samantha is four years old and loves to play with the younger children in the pre-school and almost always chooses activities and toys associated with very young children or even babies. Whenever there is a free play session she will invariably choose from the box containing things like stacking toys and shape posting boxes. Continue Reading »

Billy is very much a loner in the pre-school and usually plays by himself. He sometimes attempts to engage with the other children but joins their activities without being asked and more or less imposes himself upon them. He likes to play with the dolls‘ house or in the home corner. The staff have observed that he uses the dolls to re-enact scenes that look quite violent. Continue Reading »

A birthday table makes a charming and practical focus on this special day. Family tradition prefers to use the same piece of furniture every birthday: a coffee table, chest or sideboard would be suitable.

A festive ‘birthday cloth’ covers the table which bears cards, presents, flowers and maybe the birthday cake. In some countries the cake appears at breakfast time, in which case the birthday child (or adult) waits outside the room while the family gathers around the table. When the cake candles are alight, a little bell is rung to give the signal for the door to be opened and the birthday song to begin. Continue Reading »

This sets out in brief format some ideas you might like to think about when planning a challenging play and learning environment. The way in which you organise this is key to children’s learning and development. Some questions you may ask are as follows.

How can I:

• support and extend learning though planning play activities?
• help children to be spontaneous?
• extend children’s language and communication through play?
• help children make sense of the world around them?
• make children aware of the risks and challenges that (especially the outside) world presents?
• make sure that children experience things in a safe situation?

Continue Reading »

Some characteristics of play cut across different ages. Play integrates brain functions and blends the rational and the imaginative, the intellectual and the emotional, the linear (logical) and the nonlinear (imaginative, intuitive, and aesthetic), the mundane and the creative. As a process, play serves as a lymphatic system that lubricates, transports, and transforms the transitions of one phase of understanding into another. As a product, play—especially sociodramatic play—enhances development in language, cognition, social competence, and creative fluency. Continue Reading »

How important such play is in establishing selfhood was demonstrated to me by an eight-year-old autistic girl. As often happens, the severe pathology of her case permitted observing a phenomenon also seen in normal behavior but as if it were under microscopic enlargement, or thrown into bold relief by a bright light. This girl had been virtually mute all her life. She completely rejected all efforts to reach her physically or verbally, and was unresponsive to all aspects of her environment. She resented all efforts to make contact with her; if one reached out to her actively, she responded with angry, terrified withdrawal. Continue Reading »

Since the child often cannot really know what will be done to him, many events not actually painful will nevertheless make him fearful. After such an event, a child will typically play out the experience in fantasy. Following a visit to the dentist, for example, the child might play at fixing another child’s teeth, telling him to keep his mouth wide open, as he himself was instructed, and inserting little pieces of cardboard to take X rays. If no other “patient” is available, a toy animal will do. The many hours a child may spend in such play is a clear indication of how much actual time he would have needed in the dentist’s chair in order to truly understand what was done to him and why, and to deal appropriately with all the emotions the experience aroused. Just as we can understand and analyze events that move too fast for our comprehension by watching them in slow-motion replays, so the child learns to understand and analyze, through long hours of repetitious playback, events previously beyond his comprehension. Continue Reading »