Five Developmental Domains Of Play

The five developmental domains of play are physical, social/emotional, language and cognitive development. Play has enormous contribution and impact on all aforementioned domains. When children participate and engage in pretend and imaginary play, they are demonstrating growth and development in all domains. “In the play the child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is though he were a head taller than himself” (Vygotsky, 1978, p 102). During my month’s observation on the child that I was focused on, who was in my class, I noticed the impact of the play and its outcome in his behavior. He put five Lego cubes on a wheeled Lego and said, “I put an ice cream on the truck”. Then he asked his friend
My focused child sat in front of the fish tank for more than three minutes quietly and without revealing any reactions, as he waited for his father to pick him since he was the last one left during dismissal time. Through play, children increased sensitively to how others feel. For instance, my focused child saw his friend laying with small sea animals. He pointed to one of the animals asking, “Is this shark yours? Can it hear? Do you want me to take it?” his friend replied, “Yes”. Then my focused child took the shark saying, “Thank you for the shark” (Social cognition, theory of mind). My focused child displayed perspective-taking, impulse control, establishing positive relationships with others and learning to resolve conflicts. His language abilities were highlighted as he had the ability to use polite words or sentences while demanding to play with his friend’s toy. The aforementioned skills and characteristics makes “play” as a pivotal resources and ideal curriculum for their thrive and development. With play, children can learn various lesson of life. Play offers the excitement, happiness and experimental learning opportunities of free play and natural exploration. The lab school at the University of Chicago describes its preschool and kindergarten in these terms, ”At the Nursery school and Kindergarten levels, we believe that confidence and self-esteem, as well as cognitive
Play that supports children’s foundations of learning, intellectual readiness, social/emotional skills, physical experiments and experiences and language abilities. So how might I do this? If I observe a child or group of children were interested in making discovered or building with blocks, I will preplan to create a bigger environment that include variant sizes, colors and shapes of blocks. For example, interlocking blocks and Pegs, lincoln logs, small blocks, inch cubes, interlocking wooden blocks, magnetic blocks, bristle blocks, unit blocks and hollow block ramps. When children have the opportunity to manipulate, experience and experiment numerous kinds, shapes and sizes of blocks, they will have the opportunity to compare, classify and sort. Then children with mutual collaboration among each other can share ideas to build different kinds of structures, buildings, homes, rooms, farms, parks, etc. So I can maximize learning by providing the blocks that are one of the open ended materials. Children can work their own narratives to the materials. This will foster their cognitive, physical, language and social/emotional