Assigmenment

Early Childhood Education and Play
Assignment 1
Adriana Cristina de Oliveira
QQI – Diploma Chilcare

Early Childhood Education and Play
Assignment brief
The assignment should be to assess the value of playing with a particular toy in the development and education of early childhood. The chosen toy is Play-Dough– Super moulding mania, with 45 plus accessories suitable for children from 3 years onwards.
Aim:
Assess the value of the chosen toy (Play-dough) for the child in a way that allows the child to learn and develop while playing.
Rationale:
The Play-dough can benefit the child in so many ways in the area of development; the child learns manual skills, they use their imagination and creativity, explore and learn about the world. We can see how the play dough can impact on the child’s physical, intellectual, language, emotional and social development.
Description of chosen toy:
The toy chosen is Play-Dough Super moulding. It is soft modelling dough suitable for children over 3 years old. It is easy to model as it is soft, water-based and non-toxic.
This toy comes in a yellow cardboard package (e.g. see on appendix A) and includes 45 plus accessories. The cutters include different animal and insect figures, tree shapes, squeeze poppers and a rolling pin, coming with three tubs of dough in blue, red and green colours that can be freely mixed. They are made in plastic and are washable, and easy and safe for small hands to manipulate. The product price in the market is €12.99.
List the range of criteria by which the toy will be assessed:
The material chosen is enjoyable for younger children from the age of 3 years old, it is suitable for all genders, and we can implement the play as a challenge for the children; we can also introduce it as therapy for special needs children.
Play dough is a simple and common toy children love to play with - moulding, sculpting, rolling, squeezing etc. They can use their imagination and creativity. The properties of play dough are that it is versatile and easy for the child to manipulate. This allows the child to develop and express other interests and abilities.
Using play dough with children is beneficial as it supports development and learning and allows the child to explore ideas and new experiences. The activities allow the Physical, Intellectual, Language, Emotional and Social development of the young child.
Physical development: the play dough provides an activity whereby the child uses his hands to strengthen the hand muscles and improve fine motor skills through squeezing and rolling; he can also develop coordination skills.
Intellectual: helps the child to concentrate and problem solve, and the child can also express imagination and creativity.
Language: through using the play dough they learn listening to and talking with friends, they build their vocabulary by explaining what they are doing.
Emotional: express feelings; the child can gain confidence, the play dough helps the child cope with his feelings - when the child seems stressed, angry or overly energetic the play dough helps the child calm down.
Social: playing with others helps the child to understand the importance of sharing. The child can also discuss what they are making and ideas for play with other children.
Provide a detailed assessment of the item:
In providing the assessment we should be aware how we can involve the child and implement the planned activities to support the child’s development. This requires that we observe the individual needs and interests of the child. The ability of the child should also be considered.
The child reaches developmental milestones that progress during from birth to the age of three years old; according to Mary Sheridan’s From Birth to five years, the child should be able following;
Fine motor/ visual development:
Holds pencil near the point in preferred hand, with good control
Matches colours
Speech, language development;
Ask many questions beginning “What?”, “Where?”, “Who?”, “Why?” ;
Can identify objects by function, Understands descriptive concepts;
Some ability to switch between doing and listening. Needs to look at the speaker in order to listen;
Social behaviour and play;
Joins in active make-believe play with other children. Understands sharing playthings, but tends to pursue own ideas.
In observation, TC the child of 3 years old playing with the play dough, uses his hands to squeeze, poke and roll the play dough, making little shapes such as animals. Through the manipulation of the play dough you observe the child’s fine motor skills and the development of eye-hand coordination - the ability to match hand movement with eye movement. This physical development will be helpful for the future use of holding a pencil, writing and other purposes such as sports and arts and craft.
While playing with the play dough, TC talks about what he is making and how. TC asks: “Cookies, can you help me?”, (e.g see appendix B), he makes some cookies, and chooses the colour: “I want red cookies”. TC uses the rolling pin to make cookies. After finishing the cookies TC starts singing and moulding little balls in different shapes and colours; he seems very happy. When he plays I ask questions so TC can describe and think about what he is doing. TC makes a car and little animals and using his imagination and creativity he says “This is my farm”. TC starts rolling play dough. I encourage cooperation: “I can help you make your horse” Interactions like this can contribute to social development.
Playing allows children to be creative and discover the world around them. They learn and develop new skills, exploring their environment, interacting and communicating with other children. The activities that are suited to children’s individual needs are based on assessing the information and the aims and learning goals in Aistear’s four themes. The application of these guidelines helps to achieve the desired results, see below:
AISTEAR - The early childhood curriculum framework support the assessment that helps plan and apply in the right direction we can achieve the results proposed, says;
Aim1; The children will learn about and make sense of the world around them.
Learning goals 1. Engage, explore and experiment in their environment and use new physical skill to manipulate objects and material.
2. demonstrate a growing understanding of themselves and others in their community.
Aim 2; Children will develop and use skills and strategies for observing, questioning, investigating, understanding, negotiating, and problem solving, and come to see themselves as explorers and thinkers.
Learning goals 1 recognize patterns and make connections and associations between new learning and what they already know.
2. gather and use information from different sources using their increasing cognitive, physical and social skills.
3. use their experience and information to explore and develop working theories about how the world works, and think about how and why they learn thinks
4. demonstrate their ability to reason, negotiate and think logically.
5. collaborate with others to share interests and to solve problems confidently
6. use their creativity and imagination to think of new ways to solve problems.
Aim 3; Children will explore ways to represent ideas, feelings, thoughts, objects, and actions through symbols.
Learning goal 4; express feelings, thoughts and ideas through improvising moving, playing, talking, writing, story- telling, music and art.
Aim 4: Children will have positive attitudes towards learning and develop dispositions like curiosity, playfulness, perseverance, confidence, resourcefulness, and risk-talking. Learning goal 1. Demonstrate growing confidence in being able to do things for themselves.
2. address challenges and cope with frustations
4. feel confident that their ideas, thoughts and questions will be listened to and taken seriously
5. develop higher-order thinking skills such as problem-solving, predicting, analysing, questioning, and justifying
6. Act on their curiosity, take risks and be open to new ideas and uncertainty.
To ensure that each child learns and develops in a manner appropriate to their needs and abilities is recognised by the law in Regulation 5 Health, welfare and development of the child: “Each child’s learning, development and well-being needs should be met within the daily life of the service through the provision of the appropriate opportunities, experiences, activities, interactions and material. In meeting these needs, service providers should recognise how children affect and, in turn, are affected by the relationships, environment and activities around them.”

Reflect on the role of the adult in supporting the child’s learning and play when using the chosen toy.
The role of the adult is supporting the child’s learning and development through the use of play and interaction. The adult may also be a mediator and guide the child through new experiences, discovery and opportunities.
When the play dough is introduced to a child the role of the adult is to show the different textures stimulating the senses (moist, cold, smooth), encourage discussion, and explore the imagination and creativity of the child.
In observation the adult can plan and apply any resourcing that helps the child in his development. The adult has the important role of getting involved with the child to assist with any needs, encouraging effort, progress and contribution. With play dough the adult can evaluate if there is progression in the child’s play, observe the child’s needs and learning, and also if it is the appropriate, healthy and safe.
Playing together is a great way to build your child’s growing language skills and vocabulary.
AISTEAR: The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework, the Table 9 where provides de adult needs to plan for, support and review play. See below;
Planning for play Supporting play Reviewing play
The adults creates an indoor and outdoor environment The adult enhances and extends play based on knowledge of individual children, Aistear 's themes and expertise in play methodology. The adult gather information about children 's play and uses this to extend their learning and development - prepares, plans and organises activities based on assessment information and the aims and learning goals in Aisters 's four themes - supportive without interfering, takes part in play when invited, make positive contribution, helps children develop the skills for playing, and models play behaviours - observes, talks to and listens to children when they are playing - provides for play experiences that are safe, challenging, inclusive, and enjoyable - is aware of and respectful of children 's feeling, language, ability - observes and documents through notes, photographs and video chips what is happening in the play - structures the indoor and outdoor environment so that it reflects children 's individual strengths, interests, abilities and needs - uses the assessment information gathered in planning for future play.
Conclusions
The experience of playing with play dough involves the child exploring and discovering what he can create with his hands. The child’s imagination and creativity is engaged by moulding various shapes; he was surprised with the results he can get with play dough, e.g. biscuits, snake, and enjoyed showing what he made to other children and adults – he was very proud of his accomplishment.
With play dough we can engage children of any age or gender to discover ways of playing. The learning aspect of making different shapes, and using different tools to help make shapes, is great for developing knowledge and understanding through play. The versatility of playing with play dough engages the physical, intellectual, language, emotional and social development of the child. Observing the child play we can see any needs or difficulties they may have and assist. As illustrated in Theme Exploring and Thinking by AISTEAR - The early childhood curriculum framework supports the assessment that helps us plan and apply supervised play in the right environment to achieve the best results. Through play the adult can support the young child’s interest and learning by providing creative play experiences with play dough.
The product could be improved by adding an essence of fruit e.g. strawberry, citrus, watermelon etc. This would allow us to work with the sense of smell in young children and associate colour with smell.
In early learning the children are more susceptible and open to to learning in their environment; we can be the facilitator for challenges, new experiences and discovery that will impact and hopefully enrich their life. g Appendix -A
Material chosen – Play-Doh

Appendix -B
Squeezing the play dough Rolling Using the shape/stencil for moulding cookies Reference & Bibliography
Sharma, A. and Cockerill H. – 2014 – Mary Sheridan’s From Birth to Five Years 4th ed. New York – Pg 50-53
NCC – National Council Curriculum and Assessment – AISTEAR – The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework – Exploring and Thinking Pg. 44 and Learning and Developing through play - Pg.56
Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) Regulations 2006 and Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 – Dublin – Part II – Regulation 5 – Health, welfare and development of the Child - Pg 35-36

Bibliography: Sharma, A. and Cockerill H. – 2014 – Mary Sheridan’s From Birth to Five Years 4th ed. New York – Pg 50-53 NCC – National Council Curriculum and Assessment – AISTEAR – The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework – Exploring and Thinking Pg. 44 and Learning and Developing through play - Pg.56 Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) Regulations 2006 and Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 – Dublin – Part II – Regulation 5 – Health, welfare and development of the Child - Pg 35-36