Playing is a huge part of children development. It helps them develop their Cognitive development and speech. A researcher by the name of Lev Vygotsky was a pioneer in studying the way play helps a child develop. He believes that a psychological al phenomenon happens when children play. Through play, Vigotsky believed that a child abstractly develops meaning separate from the objects in the world, which is a critical feature in the development of higher mental functions. When play is included with an adult the child learns to regulate his/her emotions, develop speech, cognitive reasoning and learns how to deal with situations.
In continuing my volunteering at the Children’s Center in down town Salt Lake, I have observed how important playing is in the development of children, especially in there cognitive development. Lately I have begun to pay attention more to the types of play we use at the Children’s Center.
For those who do not know much about the Children’s Center, we use play as the primary form of therapy. Literally, we play for the full 3 hours we are with them.
Throughout each day we follow a general regime.
• Play on the playground
• Read books and play quiet games while eating lunch
• Play a game with everyone in a circle
• Art time
• Snack Time
• Book and Puzzle time
• Toy time
But, within these different time periods I have observed that through play the way the children feel, think and need.
For example, one day while out on the playground a young boy, (I’ll call Matt for now), got a toy he was playing with ripped out of his hands by another boy. I had seen this happen and while heading over to correct the problem Matt yelled out to the boy, “Your mean, were not friends”. Now, this made the boy who had the toy now super sad and he threw the toy in reaction across the playground. Me and a T.A. sat Matt down and the other boy and first resolved the fact that taking the toy in the first place was wrong, explaining that doing this makes the other sad, asking them to think about how they would feel if this had happened to him.
After this problem was taken care I was still sitting next to the T.A. and overheard what she talked to him next about. She asked him if he was mad, he said yes, she said that even though he was mad at someone that that doesn’t mean that him and that boy can’t still be friends. The boys response was a little shocking, when he said the when anyone does something wrong that they can no longer be friends ever. But, the T.A. pointed out that the T.A. had made Matt mad once before and they were still friends. Matt acknowledged this fact and that was the last I heard of it.
This situation with Matt happened several times that day and the next week, he would go around telling everyone who had done him or her wrong that they were no longer friends But repeating and having him think about his words and the situation throughout play time resolved the problem because 2 weeks after this incident we were playing with puzzles and books, and another child mad Matt mad, and I over heard him tell the child that what he had done made him mad, and even though they were friends he didn’t want to help him with the puzzle anymore.
And later that day while playing with some dinosaur toys he had one dinosaur jump on his other dinosaur he was playing with, the now damaged dinosaur was then made to say, it’s okay, we can still play. He had obviously through these two examples made a connection to the fact that even though people do things that make you mad you can still be friends. And forgive them for what they have done.
This brings to light the fact that Vygotsky said about play and the fact that fantasy play and reality are closely intertwined for children at this age. Through role-play and through sitting down and talking to him about the situations Matt had learned a valuable lesson. Through engaging in sociodramatic play with friends and adult there to help Scaffold, Matt had come to understand his pears psychological function in that situation, and the correct way to deal with the situation.
