Advocate for Loose Parts

12/15/2016

The moment I decided to follow instead of lead, I discovered the joys of becoming part of a small child's world.
Janet Gonzalez-Mena, early childhood consultant

"Especially in ECE programs where standards and ditto sheets are threatening to take over, advocate for loose parts as supports for the acquisition of skills that children are required to demonstrate when they enter kindergarten," urge Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky, authors of Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children.

The authors provide examples of the ways loose parts play can support skill development in multiple arenas. For example, "Children acquire their first math skills and understanding of numerical concepts when they manipulate small loose parts, like blocks and bottle caps, by sorting and classifying and combining and separating them. Once they begin integrating loose parts into their games, you commonly hear them start to count and see them arranging the parts in specific sequences, patterns, and categories by color, type, number and class."

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