Bringing up baby: vocabulary, and Play

Play vocabulary: "Poo-kah poo-kah poo-kah" "Poo-ba poo-ba poo-ba"

***
I've probably mentioned before, but I'm saying it again. Tilly has taught me how to Play.

My spare time is usually spent on a Goal, e.g. knitting an item, watching DVD, reading, working on a project, playing computer/Nintendo/app games (not in that order). Something with a defined end-point, "finished".

Playing with Tilly has no defined end-point. It is continuous and morphs. There is no Goal. No-one 'wins'. Everyone has fun.

Brilliant.

Thoughts on: Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood 4

Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood - Bending the Rules, by Sue Dockett & Marilyn Fleer (1999)

This book is due back next week, so I'm rushing through these jottings. 

Section 1. Theories of Play.
Section 2. A New Look at Play?
Section 3. Analysing Play.

Section 4. Play in Action.

 

The Child’s Whole Play Experience, Organising for Play, Play at School. 

My take-away: Children Play all day, even if adults do not recognise it as such. They play when they wake, at mealtime, wearing clothes, in the car, in the bath, etc.

I quite like Table 12.1 on page 229. In summary: Aborigine support as needed vs Japanese interdependence vs Western promote autonomy.

Organising for Play variations. Of the five different styles or programmes, these are 3 the ones which resonate with me. 

• Work then Play – it’s the approach I learned, and still practice.
• Project Approach – Play is used to support adult-selected learning outcomes. Children control the content of the play.
• Reggio Emilia – in this peer-control style, children have the control of their long-term projects and the adults support these for as long as the interest holds, e.g. displaying the children’s work, extend beyond their everyday experiences, facilitating the ‘shared wisdom’ of the group. I wish I could do this, but it reads like a lot of work for the adults. 

With regards to Play at School, this excerpt (p 276) is a good simile as to how it is in New Zealand these days I reckon. 

We Can’t Do That 

Amy and Eliza are both aged 8. They say, ‘We don’t do skipping, ‘cause we don’t have stuff we can use. And there’s no place you can go to do that. There’s no skipping and no elastics. Sometimes we’re allowed to keep out the big rope after fitness, and people get in the middle and we play with it. But then someone says there’re note going to play or they’re not their friend, and we can’t play.’ 

Terry (aged 8) reports: ‘We can’t play football, ‘cause there’s no grass. And we can’t play on the asphalt ‘cause it’s hard and we might fall over. We can’t play marbles ‘cause there’s nowhere flat. [At my last school] we used to play it where there was just a little hole and little bit [of ground] where we could play marbles.’ 

(Dockett, 1997)

With regards to bullying at school:

Sam (aged 9):
This kid came and punched Brett up a bit, but said Brett had started it. But this other kid was heaps bigger than Brett, he was just huge! All night he [the other child] was punching himself so he had a big bruise and so he could say Brett punched him first.

(Dockett, 1997)

Friends are incredibly important. Friendship interactions helps the ability to read a social situation, and develop a representational theory of mind and the ability to consider the perspectives of others. 

“Having friends enables the practice and refinement of social skills such as group entry and negotiation.” (p282)

• Dockett, S. 1997. Interviews on school play. Unpublished manuscript.

Thoughts on: Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood 3

Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood - Bending the Rules, by Sue Dockett & Marilyn Fleer (1999)

This book is due back next week, so I'm rushing through these jottings. 

Section 1. Theories of Play.
Section 2. A New Look at Play?
Section 3. Analysing Play.
Section 4. Play in Action.

My take-away:  This is the most interesting to me. It covers some of my concerns – Cultural Play, Power & Play, Technology & Play, Adults in Play, Individual Differences in Play.

Since having read this section, I have stopped worrying about Atilla’s playing. I am now more observant, supportive, encourage his style of play, and participate in his play more. 

I am more relaxed about including technology in his Play – Wii machine, iPad, television (dvd).

Power/Control in Play is a provoking thought. 

The Aborigine kids are supported to be autonomous in their eating, sleeping, and walks. They eat when and what they want to eat, they sleep when they choose to sleep, and walk as far as they want to walk.

In the Western world, there is the concept of Friend, nor Not Friend – an In Group and Out Group which can develop between 2-5yo. This freaks me out. What if my kid continues this discrimination? Worse, what if he is in the Out Group? 

Gender is another aspect. Girls tend to home-making play, because they identify with the Mum who has most power at Home. Boys tend not to identify with home-making play because often the girls delegate them to non-power roles. Boys tend towards violence and Super Hero Play, however they can be guided towards Support Role Play (e.g. Super Heros need to eat, have clothes, etc).

Therapy Play is not a new thing. However the interpretation of the Play requires lots of context.

Atilla enjoys putting Caillou to bed. Caillou gets covered with a blanket, and patted quite hard on the chest. When I first saw this (3 weeks ago) I interpreted this as Rough Play. Last night Atilla and I replicated putting Caillou to bed, but with Atilla as ‘Caillou’. Atilla indicated he likes being patted quite hard – Mummy was patting too gently for his liking. So now I know.

Adults in Play organise the Space, materials, time, and support to allow the Play to occur. I love this description so much.

The program on mapping emerged from the [4-5yo] children’s keen interest in China…

Having just finished a unit on Chinese New Year, the children had become very adept at pointing out China and Australia on a globe. Towards the end of the Chinese New Year unit, one of the children suggested that we should visit China. This began a discussion on how to get there, during which we referred to the globe to look at water and land. 

These were quite difficult concepts for the children to master. However, we finally determined that it would take too long to go to China in one day so it wasn’t really a feasible excursion. 

From ‘Hush! It’s Grandma Poss and Burra mapping out some possum magic’ (Fleer, 1997, p22). 

Individual Differences in Play – children play at their own pace, in their own way, at their own time. Not allowing them to do that means it’s not play. 

Atilla has a Play at the Brush Teeth routine. We’re in the bathroom. There’s some shampoo bottles and a brush for cleaning the shower glass with. He likes to re-arrange these. He takes them individually and puts it on the covered toilet seat. He takes them individually and places them outside the bathroom. He takes them individually and reaches high up to put it into the bathroom sink. (All while I’m brushing my teeth or flossing.) He takes them individually and puts them back in the approximate places he first found them. This Play developed over 2 weeks. He started with just putting the items outside the bathroom.

• Fleer, M. 1997. Play interviews. Unpublished transcripts.

Thoughts on: Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood 2

Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood - Bending the Rules, by Sue Dockett & Marilyn Fleer (1999)

Section 1. Theories of Play.
Section 2. A New Look at Play?
Section 3. Analysing Play.
Section 4. Play in Action.

[thanks to google auto-save, my first draft was entirely deleted so this is just the highlights]

My take-away:  this section covered most of my experience with play and with toddlers.

I appreciate Bronfenbrenner's (1979) Ecological model of play.

Illustration from Child Psychology: The Modern Science, by R. Vasta, M. Haith and S. Miller (1999). [http://www.nemetonfoundation.org.uk/index_files/Page457.htm]

The child's play is influenced by their environment and their knowledge of the world. 

The child's play is determined by their knowledge interacting with their personalities and preferences. 

Children playing creates a community: consensus on rules and behaviour, rewarded with more play.

One of my favourite memories of Atilla (18months 2weeks): he's in daycare school. I'm watching him unobserved through a window in the hallway. he's having fun twisting his body and flinging his arms around him (like a top-loading washing machine). he twists, flings so hard - he spins! Big big wide smile. He does it again and smiles with Marvin, who is also twisting and flinging.

Chapter 6: Confronting Assumptions About Play.

This contained one of the more powerful messages for me.

As I understand it, play is exercising a pleasurable skill set. So, soccer players play, musicians play, chefs also play.

Play is not without constraint; in fact humans are very good at creating constraints to play within.

Childhood may or may not be innocent, but it does contain ignorance.

Purposeful witholding of age-appropriate information is tantamount to bullying, I feel. 'Set up to fail' tactic of asserting dominance.

One of my aims with Atilla: support him in his quest to gain knowledge about the world. Share my skill set, help him to learn.

[the first version was entirely more poetic and rambling, with quotes, links, and director's cut. this is just the bits scrounged from the editing room floor.]

Thoughts on: Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood

Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood - Bending the Rules, by Sue Dockett & Marilyn Fleer (1999)

Section 1. Theories of Play.
Section 2. A New Look at Play?
Section 3. Analysing Play.
Section 4. Play in Action.

My take-away: Play is very important to a child. Play is creative, and the child has some investment or ownership in the Play. When the child's control over Play is removed or disenfranchised, it ceases to be Play and becomes Work; the child will rapidly lose interest in Work.

In Play, the child explores the range of their knowledge and understanding of their world. So often, in babies and toddlers, new toys or knowledge will be applied using the learned methods of interaction - dropping items, mouthing items, using the new item to knock against known objects (e.g. using a new wooden spoon to knock against known pots and pans).

In Play, the child extends their range of knowledge and understanding of their world.

In Play, the child extends their mastery of their environment. Play will become complex, either externally (interaction with others) or internally (solo play).

It is important to have a coherent plan when designing a Play environment for young children, as they are also learning about their social environment and context, e.g. role modelling, peer interaction (e.g. joining an existing game).

Steiner, Montessori, Piaget developed their theories in the late 1800's or early 1900's. I have a lot of respect for them. However I would send my kid to New Zealand's more modern curriculum, now that I've found out a bit more of the research into childhood since 1960's. I particularly like Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model of Play. But that's in the next section.

What I'll do: I'll play more with Atilla. I did that tonight (23 July 2012), and it was a lot of fun. We both were able to withstand each other to bedtime and beyond.

I'm not very good at pretend play. I didn't do very much of that in my childhood. My way of interacting with Atilla is to have him learn life skills through play and praise - laundry, cooking, tidying up. He had great fun tonight climbing on the couch and sitting on the soft toys, and giggling at me sitting under the table. In the bath he was throwing himself backwards onto Dada (the helpless soul laying peaceably in the bath). At the winding down stage of bedtime, Atilla was chasing me with his finger puppet dragon.

One of his games (which is constantly developing in complexity a la Play theories) is Make Momma Wince. 'Gravity' is one variant - swiping things off the table or bench to make a loud clatter on the wooden floor. 'Spill' - playing with liquids, experimenting with what actions will make the liquid spill from its containment onto the table or floor. 'Bump' - bumping his head against things, wincing in reaction, and look for sympathy.

His other complex play is Make Dada Wail - discovering the many delay tactics which frustrate Dada's task of looking after Atilla.