Learning Through Play: An Analysis of Preschool Children’s Play Behaviour and

Social Skills in Preschool

The paper examines the significance of preschool training in forming kids' development and
advancement. The Malaysian preschool school system means to give an understudy focused
opportunity for growth through play-based exercises that connect with understudies effectively in the
homeroom. It has been demonstrated that children's cognitive and social development, including the
development of memory skills, language, and behaviour regulation, are enhanced by high-quality play
experiences. In preschool classrooms, the National Pre-School Curriculum Standard places an emphasis
on the utilization of learning through play strategies. However, a lot of kids today don't have much time
for their own interests because they are too busy participating in teacher-directed activities. In the
classroom, this can result in boredom, disinterest, and a lack of focus on learning. Children's behaviour
and social skills may also suffer if playtime is eliminated from classroom instruction. During the
implementation of a learning through play approach in the classroom, the purpose of the study was to
determine children's play behaviour and social skills.

Methodology
The review included three 6-year-old kids from a preschool in Johor, Malaysia, chose through
purposive testing and with suggestions from the preschool educator and parental assent. The
children's play behaviour and social skills before and after learning through play activities were
observed using a qualitative research design. During five 30-minute observation sessions, each
child's play behaviour and social skills were recorded on video. Before coding the data, inter-
observer reliability was established to facilitate the observation of play behavior and social
skills using a checklist. Cohen's Kappa was utilized to decide the degree of coder arrangement,
and two spectators noticed every kid during learning through play meetings to guarantee
dependability.
Result and Discussion

After implementing learning through play activities, the study found that preschool children's positive
play behaviour and social skills increased, while their negative play behaviour and social skills
consistently decreased. This is consistent with previous research that suggests engaging in interactive
classroom play with peers can alleviate pre-schoolers’ issues with negative behaviour and social skills.
The review features the significance of learning through play exercises in advancing kids' play conduct
and interactive abilities, as it permits them to participate, go to bat for their thoughts, and direct their
way of behaving. On the other hand, activities that are directed by the teacher might make young
children less self-assured and less motivated to learn. Activities that teach through play give kids the
chance to learn in a fun and active way. They also give kids a chance to work together to explore and
experience their environment, which helps them form good relationships and control their behaviour.

When interpreting the findings of this study, there are a number of limitations to take into
consideration. The example, right off the bat, size was little, comprising of just three members. The
findings can't be applied to a larger population because of this. Additionally, because the research was
carried out in a specific preschool in Johor, Malaysia, it is possible that the findings will not apply to
other settings with distinct teaching methods or cultural backgrounds. Moreover, the review depended
on self-created agendas to survey play conduct and interactive abilities, which might not have caught
the full scope of ways of behaving and abilities. Lastly, the study did not compare the children's
behaviour during learning through play activities to that of other teaching methods or activities.
Instead, it only observed the children's behaviour. As a result, the findings cannot be used to compare
the efficacy of play-based learning to other teaching methods.

Conclusion

Pre-schooler’s play behaviour and social skills were examined to see how well the learning through play
approach worked. Three 6-year-old children were observed prior to and following the implementation
of learning through play activities in a qualitative research design through observation. Positive play
behaviour and social skills consistently increased, while negative behaviour and social skills consistently
decreased, according to the findings. The study emphasizes how important it is for children's social skills
and positive development to learn through play. The use of video recordings for data collection, which
increased the likelihood of obtaining accurate data, was one of the study's strengths. However, there
are limitations due to the study's single preschool and small sample size. The study adds to the body of
knowledge on the significance of play-based learning in early childhood education despite these
limitations.

The paper contains a number of potential areas for improvement in the future. To begin, in order to
improve the study's generalizability, a larger sample size and a broader range of participants would be
beneficial. Furthermore, utilizing a blended strategies approach could give a more far reaching
comprehension of the connection between learning through play and pre-schoolers’ way of behaving
and interactive abilities. Furthermore, consolidating a benchmark group that gets customary instructor
coordinated guidance would consider a correlation of the viability of learning through play approach
versus conventional educating strategies. Last but not least, after the study's conclusion, longitudinal
studies could investigate the long-term effects of play learning on pre-schoolers’ behaviour and social
skills.