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What is Play?
February 26, 2013
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
-Eleanor Roosevelt
"A natural drive to play is universal across all young mammals. Children from every society on earth spend time playing. Why? Because play is a crucial vehicle for exploring and learning, developing new skills, and connecting with others. From an infant’s first smile to a preschooler’s careful construction of a tower, children use play to engage with and learn about their world. Play has key neurological, cognitive, socio-emotional, and physiological benefits for children’s health. Most importantly, play is the way in which children form loving, trusting relationships.
"People often think of play in terms of specific ‘play activities’ such as tag, soccer, or playing in the sandbox. In contrast, they think of work in terms of activities like raking leaves, cooking, cleaning, or doing homework. It is our belief that any activity, as long as it is done with a playful approach, is play. In other words, it’s not about what you do, it’s about how you do it. Playfulness is the expression of our natural drive to freely and joyfully explore, engage, and connect with the surrounding world."
This issue of Beginnings Workshop explores tried and true strategies for managing challenging behaviors; purposeful work to support independence, self-care, and responsibility; and the role of sensory integration as an underlying issue in challenging behaviors.
Exchange has over 100 Beginnings Professional Development Workshops designed for teacher training. For today only, the downloadable PDF version of all Beginnings Professional Development Workshops are on sale for $5 each, a 50% savings!
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Sale ends 11:59 PST 2/27/2014
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ExchangeEveryDay is the official electronic newsletter for Exchange Press. It is delivered five days a week containing news stories, success stories, solutions, trend reports, and much more.
Comments (4)
Displaying All 4 CommentsArlington, Massachusetts, United States
In 50 years, this may be your most quoted piece. Thank you as always, Kathy Modigliani
ece consultant
Dallas, TX, United States
Play is the best way children learn, especially 3-5 year olds, and younger of course! So if our curriculums in pre-K and kindergarten classrooms reflect that philosophy like the High/Scope curriculum, we are cheating our children of their childhood opportunities, to become themselves. And unfortunately, this travesty is happening across the US, because of teacher-directed instruction inappropriately used with young children. We, as teachers and educators nedd to all stand up and say "No thank you!" We'll let our children play and grow and develop naturally, with us adults as shared partners in learning...:)
Seattle, WA, United States
It would be great to have a link on your articles so we could share them on our facebook page. Any thoughts of doing this?
Fisher College, Bay State College
Boston, New Bedford, N. Attelboro, Massachusetts, United States
Great perspective on Play...
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