IMPLICATION

S OF PLAY
FOR ECE
PRESENTED BY:

EMILY ALBA

ERA REFORMA

ELOISA BASCO
Play is an essential part of early
childhood development. Play contributes
to cognitive, physical, social and
emotional well being of young children.
Allowing children time to play provides
an opportunity for parents to engage with
their child.
 * Teachers can apply the four
preceding metaphors in a number
of ways.
IMPLICATION FOR TEACHERS
1. Play – as – Transformation
Teachers are able to discern the various types of
transformational behaviors implicit within pretend play episodes.
They are also able to measure each child’s progress in verbal,
imagery, and representational abilities, as shown through the
child’s use of realistic props, then less realistic props, and finally,
no props at all during pretend play. As a result, teachers are able to
make appropriate changes in what is available in activity centers
for children to use during play ( such as removing or adding
realistic props ). Furthermore, teachers should respond sensitively
to the apparent difficulty of enacting various roles and themes
within make – believe play. For instance, children usually choose
to enact themes close to their familiar everyday experiences before
themes based on fictional roles and events.
2. Play – as – Metacommunication – teachers realize that during play,
children are engage in communication on several levels. Children’s
enactments not only express the themes and plots of play episode
itself, but also reveal the social dimension of play in context. Just as
transformational theory, makes the teacher more aware of the “ vertical
nature “ of play ( developmental sequences and ability levels in
symbolic representation ), metacommunication theory makes the
teacher more aware of the “ horizontal nature “ of play considering the
social context. Social relationships within play reestablish and express
social relations outside of play. By witnessing play in this way, the
teacher has a sensitive barometer of interpersonal relations within the
classroom or child – care center. Thus, this theory can be valuable in
evaluating the peer status and the social development of each child,
and it can be used to explain some of children’s behavior during play.
3. Play – as – Performance – can offer a useful perspective on play in
at least two ways.
First, as with the previous metaphor, it highlights the fact that play
is framed, consisting of both content and context. A practical
suggestion for educators, which emerges from this metaphor, is to
respect the play boundary that divides the child’s pretend world from
the actual world, either when seeking to enter the play world as an
adult, or when attempting to help a child join on ongoing play group.
Insensitivity can lead to unnecessary disruption of play.
For example, overmanaging or excessive structuring can weaken or
destroy the child – iniated coordination among players, coplayers,
directors, producer, and audience. If a teacher feels that children would
benefit from some guidance, a helpful suggestion could be made in the
character of an appropriate role within the play episode instead of as
an outside authority figure.
For example, if the children were enacting a store scene, the teacher might take the
role of a costumer and make suggestions while enacting this minor role. Likewise,
children who have difficulty joining play groups can be coached to use appropriate
social entry skills ( ex. offering to take a minor role ) and to make smooth
transitions between groups.

A second useful perspective offered by the quadralogue performance model is

that play is more than what it may seem at first. Children are not only players, but
also directors, producers, and audience members – real or imagined. The teacher
can observe children’s growing skills in these different areas. At a certain point,
children may seek perfection in the performance – portrayals that must accurately
express the child’s imagined scenario. For instance, children may realize
something new during their play and may want to start the sequence or cycle from
the beginning again. As children mature, they develop increasing skills in directing
and managing their play. These behaviors may then provide an additional index of
intellectual and linguistic ability in children. Furthermore, given the inevitable
individual differences in these skills, teachers who examine play in
in this way will be in a better position to promote these skills, as
compared with those behaviors unaware of this perspective.
4. Play – as – Script – helps the teacher recognize and analyze
differences in intellectual and linguistic abilities, as well as differences
in self – concept and personality. As such, this perspective enables the
teacher to see the child in a new way. By observing what the child is
doing during play, the teacher can evaluate what the child knows, how
the child is organizing experiences and is able to express them, and
what matters to the child. The teachers can then design lesson plans
that will capitalize on special interest of selected children, such as by
arranging field trips and supplemental activities. The effects of these
lessons can then be observed in subsequent play scripts.

For example, a teacher might observe several children enacting a

restaurant scene and notice that the children have rather vague notions
about the roles of different restaurant personnel. A field trip to a nearby
restaurant could be planned, followed by the introduction of theme –
related props ( ex. menu ). Observation of the posttrip play would
reveal whether conceptual growth occurred as a result.
Thanks for watching and
listening !