EDCU361 ASSIGNMENT 2 PART B Critical Essay

It is essential that educators understand the significance of play and child-centred

pedagogy in Early Learning and are equipped and provided with the relevant skills to
design learning experiences based on this. Educators must ensure to design play
based resources such as a Sensory tub as well as learning experiences that
promote diversity and inclusion to implement within the Early Childhood Service.
Sensory play in Early Childhood plays a significant role in brain and health
development, as it promotes social interaction and develops motor skills. By creating
a sensory tub, it provides many benefits as it allows children to develop visual,
spatial and emotional skills. When creating play based resources and sensory play
learning experiences, teachers therefore must ensure to refer to the Early Years
Learning Framework (EYLF), National Quality Standards (NQS), and Early
Childhood Australia (ECA), as they provide educators with assistance to ensure
consistency and quality within Early Learning Education.

In order to help children engage their senses, understand the world around them,
and support their learning and development, play must be implemented within an
Early childhood service. According to ACECQA, “Play-based learning experiences
provide the opportunity for children to develop and maintain optimal regulation
particularly in the social environment provided in Early Childhood services.”
(ACECQA, 2012). Sims and Hudgins also make constant reference to play-based
learning as they state that “Through object play, babies and toddlers are able to
develop manual dexterity and mastery of fine-motor and hand-eye coordination.”
They also write that through object play, children are provided with opportunities to
explore the relationship between cause and effect and simple problem solving.”
(Sims & Hudgins, 2020)

Sensory play in particular forms a crucial part in children’s development and differs
from any other type of play, as the emphasis is on the different types of senses,
which amplifies the activity. Learning through sensory exploration stimulates a young
child’s sense of touch, sight, taste, smell and hearing. Jean Piaget’s theory supports
this belief where he makes reference to the sensorimotor stage (Birth-2 years) and
states that during this stage, children learn through exploring with the environment
and their five senses (Lorina, 2018). Piaget also emphasises the importance of play
and how it promotes both language and cognitive development in a child's
environment. His theory promotes the belief that children should be provided with
engaging learning environments in which to interact with the world around them.
Through the hands-on practical learning experiences within the sensory play
resource, infants are able to progress through Piaget’s levels of cognitive
development and therefore meet each cognitive developmental milestone (Lorina
2018).

At the age of 6-12 Months old, babies begin to use their senses to explore and try to
make sense of the world around them. As a result, a sensory tub containing
pompoms is a highly significant resource that plays an important role towards a
baby's sensory integration and cognitive development.This relates to Outcome 4 of
the Early Years learning Framework (EYLF), “Children Are Confident And Involved
Learners” (ACECQA, 2012) as Sensory play not only supports scientific thinking but
also encourages children to explore and investigate, through using their senses to
discover new aspects, in addition to being enjoyable and interesting for babies and
young children. By playing with pom poms babies are not only developing their multi-
sensory learning skills by using their whole body as a hands on approach to learning,
but also improving their fine motor skills, pincer grasp and hand eye coordination.

However for ages 18 Months- 2 Years old, this resource can be amended to support
the infants age group and level of development. A cognitive skill that infants develop
is to identify and recognise different colours. As a result, the pom pom sensory tub
can be transformed into a colour matching and sorting activity, which improves the
skill of visual scanning and fine motor skills. For example, a range of colourful pom
poms will be placed into a tub and beside it will be a cooking tray with mixed colours.
The infant/toddler will need to then match the red pompom and place it into the red
plate etc. To extend the activity for the older infants, extra props such as tongs, or a
spoon can be provided to scoop, drop, pour and release the pompoms, which
therefore improves hand eye coordination, pincer grasp and fine motor skills. This
also adheres to Outcome 3 of the EYLF: “Children have a strong sense of wellbeing”
where Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical
wellbeing as it explains that Children “engage in increasingly complex sensory-motor
skills and movement patterns.” (ACECQA, 2012).

In order to support learning and teaching, educators can also incorporate cognitive
knowledge) and language into the experience. For example, it is important to talk
through the activity to help the child understand new words and concepts as well as
build new vocabulary. Educators can do this by asking questions like: What colour is
this? Or to pick up a certain colour. Although some infants/babies are at a younger
age or may not understand it is extremely important to guide them through the
activity and ask questions. Toddlers and infants absorb everything around them, so
by completing this, they gain the advantage to build language and cognition.

Early childhood educators are often required to work with children and families from
a range of diverse backgrounds and as a result, must ensure that programs, learning
experiences and the environment itself targets all children's interests and needs.
According to Standard 6.2 of the ACECQA, “Collaborative partnerships enhance
children’s inclusion, learning and wellbeing” Hence stressing the importance that
educators must work alongside families to promote inclusion and participation
(ACECQA, 2012). By incorporating diversity and differences, and policies and
practices into early childhood programs, it allows educators to inspire creativity within
their program and drive innovation (Robinson, 2006). Inclusion and diversity can also
be implemented through inclusive play.

All children have the same desire and need to experience play, whether it be play
that challenges the child, supports, stimulates them or inspires them. However it is
important to create an inclusive positive environment that supports students with
different abilities and needs. Early Childhood Australia (ECA) has provided a
statement on the inclusion of children in early childhood education and care. They
state that every child “must have access to, participate meaningfully in, and
experience positive outcomes from early childhood education and care programs”
(Early Childhood Australia, 2022). Educators must therefore create inclusive
environments with activities and resources that are age and developmentally
appropriate, that are safe for all and universally designed. Sensory play in early
childhood plays a significant role in encouraging inclusion and particularly benefits
children with special needs or EAL/D students. If a child with special needs is open
to tactile learning then allowing them to partake in an environment with sensory rich
play will encourage and improve their individual development. For instance, in
reference to the sensory tub, by providing different textured and multicoloured pom
poms, it engages all infants. This tub provides a calming activity for students with
special needs as well as an opportunity for exploration . Educators must also
consider the heights and widths of the babies as well as the inclusion of diverse
views when creating the resource. Overall, It is essential that respect for equality and
diversity within the early childhood service is ensured in order to cherish each child,
and build an environment which nurtures all children.

Furthermore, it is crucial that educators work in collaboration with families to create a

positive learning environment that promotes inclusion and diversity. The learning
experience must ensure to incorporate play based learning in particular sensory play
as it is an important part of early childhood development. Educators must therefore
implement the EYLF, NQS and ECA within the Early Childhood service, learning
resource/experiences, as well as the program and curriculum to improve education
and support child development.
 REFERENCE LIST:

Inclusion Resources. Early Childhood Australia. (2022). Retrieved 17 April 2022,

from https://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-work/inclusion-
resources/.

Lorina. (2018). Child Theorists and Their Theories in Practice. Aussie Childcare
Network. Retrieved 16 April 2022, from
https://aussiechildcarenetwork.com.au/articles/childcare-articles/child-
theorists-and-their-theories-in-practice.

Robinson, & Jones-Diaz, C. (2006). Diversity and difference in early

childhood education issues for theory and practice. Open University Press.

Sims, M., & Hutchins, T. (2020) (3 rd ed.). Program Planning for infants and
toddlers. In search of relationships. Pademelon Press.

The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. (2018).

BELONGING, BEING & BECOMING, THE EARLY YEARS LEARNING
FRAMEWORK FOR AUSTRALIA [Ebook]. Retrieved 18 April 2022, from
https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-02/belonging_being_and
_becoming_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf.