Many parents view pretend play as a recreational activity and not a learning experience. The truth is that pretend play skills have huge value. Pretend play can be defined as children acting out stories that involve the emotions and perspectives of different characters. Children use pretend play when manipulating dolls, when dressing up and pretending to be someone else, or by pretending to play with an imaginary person or character. Although these activities seem light-hearted, they have a powerful effect on multiple areas of development.
Social & Emotional Development Pretend play allows children to play cooperatively, to share with one another, and to develop empathy for another person’s situation. Young children typically see the world through their own eyes without considering the perspective of others. Pretend play opens the door for a child to consider how someone else feels and how a situation may affect more than one person. When children start to show pretend play skills they are usually alone making toys interact with one another. As they become more advanced socially they begin to interact with other children and have more intricate pretend play plots. This often leads to more advanced problem solving skills as children learn to solve a problem that another friend introduces to the pretend play scenario. Language Development It can be extremely interesting to listen to a child’s language during pretend play. As a parent, you may hear an exact replica of phrases and expressions that you regularly use. You may even be surprised at the amount of language your child is using to express himself. Pretend play encourages children to use language skills so that they can explain the actions and the stories that they are using to play. In group pretend play activities, the children must ask questions and explain themselves to peers in order to further the story. Children also learn that language has meaning to the story, which is a skill that will help with reading development. Problem-Solving Skills When children are pretending, they often have a variety of problems to solve. They could be as simple as two children wanting to be the same character in their story, or in a more elaborate story, they could have a mystery to solve and must move through stages of story development. Pretend play also creates abstract thought. Children develop pretend play stories by seeing pictures in their minds and trying to act out those pictures with their bodies. If a child is missing a prop for his story, he must find a way to adapt the materials that are available and solve the problem. All of these skills lead to higher level thinking. Physical Development During pretend play children often use both gross and fine motor skills. Pretend play often encourages children to dress and undress in imaginative outfits, so children may be learning to snap, button, tie, and zip. These are all necessary self-help skills that assist with hand-eye coordination. Also, pretend play may encourage large muscle skills as well. When a child on the playground pretends to be a firefighter and climbs to the top of the play structure to save someone from a burning building, she is also working on climbing and visual discrimination. Pretend Play at Home It may be more difficult to encourage pretend play at home since your child is not around peers. Many different types of toys encourage pretend play. Items like Little People, Legos, cars and trucks, action figures, and dress up clothing can nurture a pretend play environment. If you don’t have these toys at home, you can create a prop box that will encourage your child to make-believe. Here are some items that you may want to include:
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The purpose of high-quality childcare is to ensure that children with and without special needs reach their full potential by collaborating with families, therapists, and community partners. For some children, that means providing the highest quality preschool education with educated teachers and low student-to-teacher ratios. For other children, that also involves incorporating therapists to address a development delay in one or more areas. An integrated preschool education environment allows children with and without special needs to interact and learn from one another in the same classroom.
Children with a diagnosed developmental delay will have peer models to show them how to achieve each developmental milestone. Children with typical abilities solidify their own learning through teaching their peers. This system is much like that used in our teaching hospitals today, “See It, Do It, Teach It”. A child is introduced to a skill when he sees another child demonstrate the activity. He moves to the next stage of learning when he is able to act out the skill himself. Finally, a skill is truly mastered once a child understands it well enough to explain it to a peer. This inclusive classroom design also allows children to associate with peers with a diversity of skills and abilities and learn to appreciate those differences. It is essential to make sure that all children and families are treated with the utmost respect. One of the ways that we try to achieve this goal is by using People-First Language. People-First Language means always putting the person before the disability. For example, instead of saying “a CP child”, you would say a child with Cerebral Palsy. Instead of saying “an Epileptic child”, you would say “a child with Epilepsy”. Instead of saying “a disabled child”, you would say “a child with a physical delay”. Using People First Language is not about being politically-correct. Instead, it is a sign of respect that the disability is merely one characteristic of a person that may have many feelings, attributes, and talents. The tone and characteristics of our language show our attitude and inadvertently shape our mindset. Even more concerning, our language shapes the mindset of our children who are listening to our vocabulary on a daily basis and learning to copy our every word. It is essential that we start teaching our children People-First Language now so that we eliminate this unnecessary prejudice as soon as possible. Start listening to your own speech and the speech of those around you, and challenge yourself to correct these inconsistencies. It is one small way to show additional respect to others. As a parent or a grandparent today, your memory of a parent-teacher conference may involve a time when you got in trouble in school. In past generations, teachers used parent-teacher conferences as an opportunity to tell families that their children were in trouble or their children were falling behind in school. That is no longer the case. Now, parent-teacher conferences are used as one of the main communication methods between teachers and the family! They are a vital part of a successful education program. High quality early childhood education programs, with the assistance of parent-teacher conferences, invite families to actively take part in decision-making opportunities concerning their children’s education. Programs and families collaborate in establishing goals for children’s education and learning both at home and at school.
Conference Topics Many parents often ask what will be discussed at a parent-teacher conference for a young child. Here are some of the topics that your child’s teacher may cover:
What to Ask at a Parent-Teacher Conference Although conferences may be limited in time, there are a few items that it is important to ask about when your family has individual time with the teacher. If the teacher does not cover these topics, here are a few things to ask about:
Concerns Occasionally families will be surprised by information that they receive in a conference because it does not match what they are seeing in the home environment. The major variable for children between the home and school environment is the social setting with numerous children. A child that does well when he or she has the family’s full attention at home (or even shares attention with one or two siblings) may show very different behavior when he or she must share attention with seven or more peers in the classroom setting. Parents do not need to be disheartened by this information. Teachers have a wide variety of resources that can assist your child in any area with which he or she is struggling. If a child is struggling with a mild issue, it could be as simple as the family and the classroom teachers collaborating to make sure they are addressing the situation the same in the home and the school environment. If the family has a greater concern, then the teacher can assist the family with starting the referral process with a pediatrician or local specialist for therapy support in the area of concern. The main goal is to make sure that each child is working to his or her full potential so that he or she will be as prepared as possible to enter Kindergarten. Infants and Toddlers Families frequently ask if it is still important to have a parent-teacher conference if the child is an infant or toddler. It is just as essential (if not more so) to meet with the teachers when a child is in the infant room as when the child is in preschool. The point of the conference is to share information between the teachers and the family. During an infant/toddler conference, the following information needs to be shared:
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AuthorDr. Sarah Vanover has been working in the field of early childhood education for over 22 years and has had the opportunity to be a teacher, a director, and a trainer for other early childhood educators. She has a passion for making sure that children with special needs receive high-quality early care and education. Archives
September 2017
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