Understanding Children's Play


Book Description

Understanding Children's Play offers a full exploration of children's play from babyhood through to the early years of primary school. It explores how their play is shaped by time and place and supports early years practitioners and playworkers.




Understanding Young Children's Learning through Play


Book Description

This timely and accessible text introduces, theorises and practically applies two important concepts which now underpin early years practice: those of ‘playful learning' and 'playful pedagogies'. Pat Broadhead and Andy Burt draw upon filmed material, conversations with children, reflection, observation, and parental and staff interviews, in their longitudinal study of outdoor and indoor play environments in an early years unit. This research-based text offers extensive insights into related theories, as well drawing on the authors’ skills and knowledge as researcher and as class teacher in order to provide opportunities for personal reflection and possibilities for practical application in early years classes and settings. Discussing both indoor and outdoor environments, the text explores ideas surrounding ‘open-ended play’, and ‘the whatever you want it to be place’. It illustrates how the themes of children’s play reflect their interests, experiences, knowledge gained at home and in school, and their cultural heritages. By showing how children become familiar and skilful within open-ended play environments, the authors illustrate how the children’s co-operative skills develop over time as they become connected in communities of learners. Alongside the examples of children’s playful learning, the book also considers the implications for resourcing and organising playful settings through playful pedagogies that connect with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (DfES 2007) and with the Tickell Review, ongoing as the book went to press. Understanding Young Children's Learning through Play uses children’s perspectives on their play to illustrate how rich their personal understandings are. It also includes parental reflections on what may initially appear a risky and unusual outdoor environment, and it draws attention to the importance of conflict resolution in play in order to extend children’s resilience and assertiveness. This insightful text will be of interest to students of early years education, early years practitioners, academics and researchers.




Understanding Kids, Play, and Interactive Design


Book Description

This book is a way of sharing insights empirically gathered, over decades of interactive media development, by the author and other children’s designers. Included is as much emerging theory as possible in order to provide background for practical and technical aspects of design while still keeping the information accessible. The author's intent for this book is not to create an academic treatise but to furnish an insightful and practical manual for the next generation of children’s interactive media and game designers. Key Features Provides practical detailing of how children's developmental needs and capabilities translate to specific design elements of a piece of media Serves as an invaluable reference for anyone who is designing interactive games for children (or adults) Detailed discussions of how children learn and how they play Provides lots of examples and design tips on how to design content that will be appealing and effective for various age ranges Accessible approach, based on years of successful creative business experience, covers basics across the gamut from developmental needs and learning theories to formats, colors, and sounds




Understanding Children′s Books


Book Description

Children′s books play a vital role in education, and this book helps you to choose books that have the most to offer young children. Each chapter reflects on a different theme or genre and their role in educational settings, and recommends ten ′must reads′ within each one. The themes covered include: - books for babies - literature for the very young - narrative fiction - books in translation - poetry - picture books - graphic texts. Early years professionals, childcare professionals and teachers working from nursery to Key Stage 3 will find this book a fascinating and useful resource.




From Play to Practice


Book Description

Describes play workshop experiences that give educators a deeper understanding of play-based learning and illustrate the power of play.




Children and Play


Book Description

The role of play in child development is a source of ongoing interest and debate. In this book, renowned expert Peter Smith offers an expansive definition of the term “play”, taking an in-depth look at its impact on children, as well as its adaptive value for birds and mammals, including primates. Using both contemporary and classic research, Smith examines how different age groups and sexes participate in a wide variety of play, including exercise and rough-and- tumble play, fantasy play and imaginary friends, and play with objects. The book gauges the function of play in early childhood education and makes the case for and against recess breaks in school. How play occurs in different societies and among various populations – including children with special needs – is also explored. With its comprehensive coverage of theoretical, historical, cross-cultural, and evolutionary perspectives, Children and Play holds significant insights for parents, educators, and clinicians.




Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8


Book Description

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.







Understanding Children’s Development in the Early Years


Book Description

Review of the first edition: 'This book provides a very accessible approach to building a better understanding of young children and their development and will be an interesting and useful read for both experienced early years practitioners and for students who are just beginning to build their practical experience.' - Early Years Update This highly practical and fully updated new edition is full of case studies and helpful advice on how to enhance our understanding of very young children. Through working with many practitioners in different settings, Christine Macintyre offers down-to-earth strategies to enhance the learning of children in their care, and asks: What are the key influences in encouraging children to achieve their potential? Are the four aspects of children’s development equally important and how do they interact? Does the play - based curriculum truly cater for children with a range of abilities and interests e.g. gifted and talented children and those who need extra support? What new ways are there of enhancing learning? How can we be sure that parents appreciate how we support their children in all aspects of their development? With examples and case-studies drawn from a variety of real-life nursery practices, these interesting and thought-provoking scenarios will help enhance and develop the practice of all students and early years teachers.