Gordon Biddle, Early Childhood Education: Becoming a Professional Instructor Resource
Chapter 10: Lecture Notes
Play and the Learning Environment
Play is essential to the growth and development of young children. In order to plan for
play, teachers should begin with the physical environment, which includes room arrangement,
safety, and incorporation of learning areas. There are five basic forms that can assist the teacher
in understanding the cognitive attributes and complexity of play. They are functional play,
constructive play, dramatic play, sociodramatic pay, and games with rules. There are also types
of play models that describe children’s social play. They are solitary play, parallel play,
associative play, and cooperative play. Play also assists in emotional development, language
development, physical development, and creativity.
There are five characteristics that have been used to define play and they include active
engagement, intrinsic motivation, attention to means rather than ends, non-literal behavior, and
existence of implicit rules. There are also numerous theories, including classical and
contemporary, that have supported the understanding of the behaviors seen in children’s play.
Teacher can use this information to ensure that play is a focus of their classroom environment.
Children can choose their play experiences and teachers can provide activities that will help
children meet educational goals.
Why Is the Physical Environment Important for Learning and Play?
What Are Some Learning Environments?
Gordon Biddle, Early Childhood Education: Becoming a Professional Instructor Resource
• The way the furniture is arranged and the way the room looks communicate to children
what they are expected to do and how they are expected to behave.
• A safe environment encourages exploration and play behaviors in young children.
o Children of different ages should be separated both inside and outside.
• Play includes a great number of behaviors, such as swinging, sliding, running, building,
dancing, dressing up, and pretending.
• The benefits of play are immense.
o Play offers children the opportunity to learn about the self, others, and the
What Are the Developmental Characteristics of Play?
• Cognitive development and play. Five basic forms of play:
Gordon Biddle, Early Childhood Education: Becoming a Professional Instructor Resource
• Social development and play.
o Solitary play is when children play alone.
o Parallel play occurs when children continue to play independently, but are now
o Through play, children can imitate, recreate, and rehearse roles that help them
understand and solve problems.
• Language development and play.
o Through play, children use language to interact with their peers.
• Physical development and play.
o Gross motor development is strengthened through the use of large muscles.
• Creativity and play.
o Children use their imagination to invent or produce something new.
How Do We Distinguish Play From Other Behaviors?
Gordon Biddle, Early Childhood Education: Becoming a Professional Instructor Resource
What Are the Theories on Play?
• Classical theories emerged from philosophical thinking on the nature of childhood and
the perceived value of playful activities.
o Surplus Energy Theory proposes that play assists to eliminate any organism of
“excess energy” that is left over after meeting basic survival needs.
o Relaxation Theory proposes that, through play, individuals restore the energy that
they exhausted during their work.
• Contemporary theories of play provide an understanding of play’s essential role in
children’s development.
o Psychoanalytic theory hypothesized that play performed a special function in
children’s emotional development. Play achieves a therapeutic effect; it enables
children to relieve themselves of negative emotions and replace them with more
Gordon Biddle, Early Childhood Education: Becoming a Professional Instructor Resource
o Play is the metacommunicative (connecting the thought processes of two people
o Piaget (1962) and Vygotsky (1967) are the principal originators of cognitive
development theory. The theory is about the construction of thought processes
and intelligence.
▪ Piaget states that children acquire knowledge though the dual processes of
assimilation and accommodation.
o Piaget’s theory includes three stages of play:
▪ Functional play, also known as sensorimotor
o Vygotsky believed that conflict and problem solving are the essential
characteristics of development. His primary focus of research was the belief that
individuals need social interactions in order for learning to take place. His theory
includes three important social-cognitive processes:
▪ Zone of Proximal Development – is the difference between what a student
can accomplish with help, under the guidance or in collaboration of the
How Can Teachers Use Play to Help Children Learn and Develop?
• In order to help children learn through the process of play, teachers need to plan and
organize learning areas.
Gordon Biddle, Early Childhood Education: Becoming a Professional Instructor Resource