Importance of Play

Play has a significant role in the healthy development of children’s brain. It allows children to engage their mind and generate creative ideas while developing their imagination, physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. In fact, play is critically important that the United Nations High Commissions for Human Rights recognized it as a right of every child. Unfortunately, despite the numerous benefits derived from play, today’s children are not getting enough time to play (Johnson & Jones, 2016). Working at school and homework, competing with peers, working towards improving their talents, and spending time with their parents has markedly reduced the free time for play for today’s children. Consequently, the modern society is now designed around a hurry-up lifestyle with no regulated screen time for the children combined with less access to safe places of outdoor physical activities. The factors have significantly reduced the average child’s opportunity to free and unstructured play.

Specific Ideas to Incorporate Play into a Young Child’s Day

Ideally, play makes children happier, healthier, and even better learners. Nonetheless, the ultimate question remains, how can parents and teachers incorporate play in a stressed-out and overscheduled world? Teachers should look for ways to incorporate play-based instruction to help students build skills necessary for their academic development. The methods can be tech-driven or introduce children playing with blocks as their solve class problems. Parents can come up together with neighbors and use their whole neighborhood as a play zone.

Technology and Young Children

Today, children are growing in a dynamic digital world where technology and interactive media is being used to support learning and development. Virtually, according to a position statement by the NAEYC (2012), integrating technology and interactive media in the learning environment provides several benefits to the children. In fact, technology and interactive media have the potential to promote effective learning and development when used appropriately to support learning goals. Within the instructional setting, these tools provide instructors with ways to optimize opportunities for the cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and linguistic development among young children. Consequently, effective use of technology provides adaptive tools to help children explore, create, solve problems, think critically, and learn with and from their peers among others. When used appropriately, technology and media can also enhance the cognitive and social abilities of the children. More specifically, the tools offer opportunities to extend learning within the instructional setting in the same way as other materials such as manipulative, play, and art materials among others. Additionally, successful integration of technology and media into early childhood learning can help strength the home-school relationship, where educators can easily communicate and enhance their relationship with parents and enhance family engagement.

Overall, by appropriately integrating and using technology and interactive media within early childhood instructional setting, instructors can realize the benefits of technology and even use it to enhance learning and development. As noted, it is important to research and understand better ways in which technology can be used to enhance learning, while avoiding the negative impacts.

References

Johnson, B., & Jones, M. (2016). Learning on your feet: Incorporating physical activity into the K-8 classroom. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

NAEYC. (2012). Technology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/topics/PS_technology_WEB.pdf