Understand Children and Young Peoples Self Directed Play free essay sample

Freely chosen, self directed play. Refer back to assignment 1. The play cycle A play cycle begins in the pre conscious thoughts of the child, it is at the point of daydream where the playful impulse is created and given out as the play cue. Once this cue is taken up by a responding partner the play cycle begins. The metalude signals the start of the play process and while it supports a single play thought in the Childs consciousness it can change in seconds to become another playful thoughts or an extended version of its original self. The play cue can be given out in many ways, facial expressions, eyes contact, body language or simply through using materials I. e. a ball or a colouring pencil. Looking back through my reflective diary I noticed a very clear cue I had received, it was very clear and understandable a child simply kicked a ball in my direction and gave me clear eye contact so naturally I kicked it back in seconds we were a having a football match and within minutes other children were coming over to join so I stepped back and facilitated. The play cue is followed by the play return example; kicking the ball back. which can come from another person, the environment or from the child playing. Then comes the Play frame, the process or space that is created by cues and returns. Its a boundary that keeps the play intact. It begins with the childs play drive and includes all that allows play to continue. It may be as big as a football pitch or as small as a chessboard and the two people playing. As a play worker you can be inside or outside of the frame depending on the level of the play workers involvement.Play Cycle, the full flow of play from the first play cue to the return and the further development of play- with more cues and returns until the play is complete. Play Annihilation: The end of the play frame. Children take what they want from the activity and then it is finished. A play worker can cause play annihilation if they intervene inappropriately in childrens play. In my setting when it is tea time we have 5 minutes which means they finish what they are doing and then wash hands ready for tea, this way play annihilation is not done by the play worker and children can finish play how they want to.Play space A child’s play space is any area that supports and enriches the potential for children and young people in self directed play. Children and young people should have a variety of play spaces which stimulate them in different ways e. g. : an outdoor play space for physical stimulation and to encourage a healthy active lifestyle, story corner for cognitive stimulation, it has been proven that stories and rhymes help to improve memory and concentration skills.Books and rhymes also help to develop children’s imaginations, but more importantly stories can help children understand and discuss their own feelings which could otherwise be left unheard. All play spaces should be welcoming and varied with different resources, with sufficient quantities so that children and young people do not have to wait to participate and have opportunities for social interaction with both children and play workers . My setting has a variety of play spaces associable to all children and young people for all different needs.All children have the choice to help us to create new play new spaces of to freely choose there own play space which they will do naturally. All resources are accessible for all children and young people which enables all children play to continue un interrupted giving them freedom of more choice and to explore there own chosen activities in there own way and time. Loose parts The theory of loose parts over the last 40 years become increasingly known and used by play workers and play space designers. It was first suggested in 1971 by an architect called Simon Nicholson.He believed that loose parts in our environment empowere d our creativity. According to the Oxfordshire play association loose parts are items and materials that children and young people can move, adapt, control and manipulate within their play. Loose parts provide a high level of creativity and choice as there are endless possibilities for how they can be played with. In my setting yesterday the children used loose parts such as cardboard boxes, bottle tops and shiny paper to make a robot, the robot then became a bus and later a child’s hideout.Simon Nichols theory of loose parts argues that creativity is not for the gifted, he believes that it is our education and cultural conditions that lead us to believe this . He said that ‘in any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity and the possibility of discovery are directly proportional to the number of loose parts and kind of variables in it. ’ You do not have to be a gifted musician to make music, the children and young people at my setting often make there own musi c, with pots, pans and trays or even banging small sticks on surface areas. Play preferences. Preference for outdoor play. Child A plays mostly outdoors as he believes it is more fun, and loves to investigate the surroundings. The choice of indoor play is often related to the weather, child A only plays inside when its cold or raining. It is only in severe weather conditions children have to stay in doors as in our setting we believe the children can learn and develop much more outside even when the weather is poor. Play preferences are the child’s own choices ; the freedom ; opportunities to be able to make those choices by enabling varied resources that are always accessible to encourage development.Different play types 10 examples Symbolic play: Play which allows control, gradual exploration and increased understanding, without the risk of being out of ones depths. In our setting I observed a child making a doll feed another doll. Rough and tumble play: Close encounter play which is less to do with fighting and more to do with touching, tickling, gauging relative strength, discovering physical flexibility and the exhilarations of display. For example, a lot of the boys at my setting like to play fight, I feel this is natural so I set there boundaries and just facilitate until the risks go to ar. Socio-dramatic play: The enactment of real and potential experiences of an intense personal nature. For example child may pretend to take care of their baby doll as this is what they see there parents do with younger siblings, through pretend play, a child can experience and learn what it may mean to love and care for someone else. Social play: Play during with the rules and criteria for social engagement and interaction can be revealed, explored and amended.Looking through my reflective diary a good example for social play would be when two children at my setting were setting up a ‘pretend’ shop selling toys and books to other children the ‘customers’ . Creative play: Play which allows a new response, the transformation awareness of new connections with an element of surprise. Creative play can be many things, not just arts crafts. I observed a child building Lego brinks, when he had finished he told me it was the Eiffel tower in France, I think is a lovely example of creative play as I thought the tower could have been anything but he new exactly what and where it was.Communication play: Play using words, nuances of gestures. For example joke telling, story telling, play acting, singing. Role play: Play which dramatises events in which the child is not a direct participator. In reflective practice I saw a child sitting in a box using an imaginary steering wheel ,he told me he was â€Å"driving to spaceâ€Å". Role play doesn’t even have to have props it can be completely imaginative with or without play equipment. Exploration play: Play to access factual information consisting of manipulative behaviours such as handling, throwing, banging, or mouthing objects.For example playing with, sand, bricks, water clay, play dough. Dramatic play: Play which rearranges the world in the child’s way, a way in which is unlikely to occur. At the moment every day at tidy up time the children ask if they can play factor, most of the children love to be one of the contestants, they all make me and other staff be judges, but there is always one particular child who wants to be Dermot O’Leary the TV show presenter. Fantasy play: Play where the conventional rules, which govern the physical world, do not apply.For a good example I read in one of my reflective diary a couple of months ago a child asked me for a role of tin foil I, asked him what for, he replied I want to be an astronaut, I gave him the role of tin foil and he spent the whole session making his costume. When his dad came to collect him , he put the costume on and was running around so proud of what he had made. How you encourage risk and challenge, its importance and the awareness of balancing health and safety, give examples of risks within 5 of your different play types.Refer to risk and challenge sheet 310. 3. Observation and reflection, how you do this and its importance. Part of a play workers role is to observe all children on a daily basis, This observation involves the gathering of information about a particular child behaviour and their stage of development. Reflections is the process of thinking about and critically analyzing your actions with the intention of changing and continually improving our working environment.It is vital that these observations and reflections are done in order to understand and meet each child’s individual needs, and to identify which areas of development a child is particularly good at. Frequent observations also help me to under stand a child’s behaviour and what provokes the child’s bad behaviour. Observations also help to plan for future sessions, as it gives the play worker an idea of what the child is interested in, or good at. E. g. t my setting child 2 was enjoying playing snakes and ladders, the child was keen to show their counting skills, so for the next session we developed on this with a game of frustration. The effectiveness of reflective practice I feel can only make me a stronger play worker and my setting a more supportive environment. As a play worker in my setting I understand that reflective practice is important as this is how we can improve things in our setting and also improve on a personal level to be consistent in giving the best care to all those who use my setting. Reflective practise is increasingly used as a way of improving services to children and their families. Reflective practice is like taking a mirror to what you and your setting are doing and considering how effective it is. This process is great not only to children and their families but also for me as a play worker personally. As a result of reflecting on your practice, play workers might decide to adapt a routine, activity or even approach towards an individual child.Reflecting on my practise could also result in me attending further training or doing additional courses. The setting should be providing a safe environment for all and being supportive of each individual child who attend and their family. When reflecting on practise it is worth while to stand back a little and notice what is being done in the setting to create the safe and supportive environment. By looking at all areas in which we care for children and reflecting on practice we are always improving on how we make the setting a safe environment for all who use it.To be effective in my practise is being willing to learn, I feel that by understanding the importance of a safe and supportive environment for children there is room for improvement, by continuing and not being complacent in my caring for each individual child. I must always be flexible in my working practise. Your impact on play and when it is/is not appropriate to intervene This links into freely chosen play and why it is not acceptable to intervene unless necessary during play. Play workers should know when and when it is not acceptable to intervene, for instants if a child is struggling or upset r a risk is to high then a play workers should stop being the facilitator and intervene. In most play scenes children will self directly choose how to carry on, end or change play. In our setting when it is tea time we have a system called 5 minutes, all children are aware of what this is. It is the process that we use so children can end play how they like and not have an adult intervene and annihilate play. A play worker intervening can sometimes put children off what they are doing and some times can bring positive to there play.In my setting I was observing a boy who was playing with the car mat and garage he was quite content and concentrating on his own play, I notice he was struggling to fit all his cars on one matt, so I got the other matt out of the cupboard and just gently walked past and placed it on the floor beside him then carried on walking. From the other side of the room I could see he was now much more happier as he could use more cars, I thought this was a good intervention style as I did not ruin play but intervening made him achieve a better outcome.