Importance of play for babies & children | Raising Children Network Australian Government Department of Education and Training (2009). Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved 19 June 2019 from Cole-Hamilton, I. (2011). Fleer, M. (2013). Ginsburg, K.A. (2007). Lester, S., & Russell, W. (2010). Lui, C., Solis, S.L., Jensen, H., Hopkins, E.J., Neale, D., Zosh, J.M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Whitebread, D. (2017). Whitebread, D., Neale, D., Jensen, H., Liu, C., Solis, S.L., Hopkins, E., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Zosh, J.M. (2017). Woods, A. (2013). Yogman, M., Garner, A., Hutchinson, J., Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Golinkoff, R.M., Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health & Council on Communications and Media (2018).
Taking Playtime Seriously So part of encouraging play is pulling back on how much programmed goal-directed learning we expect from very young children, to leave them time for the fun of exploration, curiosity and, well, fun. But another important part may be creating environments that foster children’s play and parents’ participation and attention. Dr. Hirsh-Pasek, who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, cited its Learning Landscapes Initiative, which aims to set up learning opportunities in public places where people will encounter them. Before the benches were installed, she said, parents waiting for buses were almost uniformly looking at their cellphones. “We put one up in a park,” she said. As children get older, she said, some of their playing continues to be free play, in which a child goes out into the world as a discoverer and an explorer, and some is “constrained tinkering,” which she compared to bowling with bumpers.
How young children learn English through play As we release Learning Time with Timmy – our first app for early-years learners of English – Danitza Villarroel, a teacher on our Learning Time with Shaun and Timmy course in Chile, explains the importance of learning through play, and offers a few tips for teachers new to this age group. Teaching English to pre-school children can be daunting for teachers new to this age group. Young children have shorter attention spans than older children and adults, and they're still learning their mother tongue. The importance of active learning Active learning means fully involving children in the learning process. Promoting learning through play Play is a very significant part of what life means to children at this stage of their development. Encouraging children's creativity and imagination It's important that we help young learners develop beyond mere language abilities. Developing children's social skills Developing social skills is also very important at this learning stage.
Importance of play for babies & children Play is more than just fun for babies and children. It’s how they learn best, and how they work out who they are, how the world works and where they fit into it. You can read this article in a selection of languages other than English. The importance of play Playing is one of the most important things you can do with your child, because play is essential for your child’s brain development. Play also helps your child: build confidence feel loved, happy and safe develop social skills, language and communication learn about caring for others and the environment develop physical skills. Your child will love playing with you, but sometimes she might prefer to play by herself and won’t need so much hands-on play from you. Different types of play Unstructured, free play is the best type of play for young children. This is play that just happens, depending on what takes your child’s interest at the time. Examples of unstructured play might be: Structured play is different. Languages other than English
Why Movement is Essential in Early Childhood With so few years under their belts, my 3- and 6-year-old daughters are still learning to inhabit their bodies. They are learning how to maneuver themselves physically, how to orient themselves in space. As Vanessa Durand, a pediatrician at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, says, freedom of movement is necessary for children to meet their developmental milestones: “Children learn by experiencing their world using all of their senses. Movement allows children to connect concepts to action and to learn through trial and error. Research has shown time and again that children need opportunities to move in class. Ben Mardell, a professor of early-childhood education at Lesley University and the project director of the Pedagogy of Play initiative at Harvard’s Project Zero, observes that even when adults do incorporate play into learning, they often do so in a way that restricts free movement and agency.
How to start teaching kids English at home By Jo Blackmore, LearnEnglish Kids team How do I start teaching my kids English at home? Many parents would like to teach their children English at home, but don’t know how to start. It doesn’t matter if your own English is not perfect. Establishing a routine Establish a routine for your English time at home. Try to do certain activities at the same time every day. Playing games Children learn naturally when they are having fun. You can find free downloadable flashcards on a wide range of topics on our website. There are many other types of games you can play with your children to help them practise English. Action games – for example Simon says, Charades, What’s the time Mr Wolf? Using everyday situations The advantage of teaching English at home is that you can use everyday situations and real objects from around the house to practise the language naturally and in context. Using stories Younger children love books with bright colours and attractive illustrations. Using songs Teaching grammar
How Long Does It Take To Learn A Language? | World of Better Learning Published 11 October 2018 Ben Knight is Director of ELT Research here at Cambridge, managing a team of researchers working on a variety of projects to help us develop courses and materials. In this article, Ben discusses some of the research the team have been conducting around the time it takes to learn a language, and how we can help learners progress quicker. We know that learning a language takes a lot of effort over quite a long time. There’s no single answer to this question – it depends very much on what your target is, what your motivation and opportunities are, and lots of other background factors. But we’re often asked by educational institutions and ministries around the world to advise them on how much time students need to make progress in their English. We’ve set out to capture what affects the number of hours you need to learn English. How can you help your students to describe what they want to be able to do in English?
untitled Primary school shake-up to focus on ‘play-led’ learning Children at primary schools would not study traditional subjects until as late as 10 years of age, under proposals being considered by policymakers. Instead, there would be a much greater emphasis on creative play during the early years of primary school, and broader areas of learning in later years. The reforms are based loosely on some of the features of top-performing education systems in countries such as Finland, as well as new research on how children learn. The proposals, drafted by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), represent some of the biggest proposed changes to teaching and learning at primary level in more than two decades. They also seek to give teachers more flexibility and autonomy over the amount of time dedicated to key areas of learning. Educators, policymakers and parents discussed the proposals at a conference in Dublin Castle on Tuesday as part of a consultation phase which continues until the end of April. Exciting opportunity
6 Types of Play: How Children's Play Becomes More Social Play is a serious business. The pioneering developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky thought that, in the preschool years, play is the leading source of development. Through play children learn and practice many basic social skills. They develop a sense of self, learn to interact with other children, how to make friends, how to lie and how to role-play. The classic study of how play develops in children was carried out by Mildred Parten in the late 1920s at the Institute of Child Development in Minnesota. She closely observed children between the ages of 2 and 5 years and categorised the types of play. Parten collected data by systematically sampling the children’s behaviour. The thing to notice is that the first four types of play don’t involve much interaction with others, while the last two do. Unoccupied play: the child is relatively stationary and appears to be performing random movements with no apparent purpose. » This is part of a series on 10 crucial child psychology studies. Reference
FAQ: Raising Bilingual Children | Linguistic Society of America Why want bilingual children? There are many reasons, but the two most common are: 1) The parents speak different languages (say, an American woman and a Turkish man). 2) The parents speak the same language, but live in a community where most people speak something else (say, a Korean couple living in the USA). In the first case, both the mother and father may want to be able to use their own language when talking to their children. Don't children get confused when they hear two languages spoken around them? The short answer is no. Fifty years ago educators throughout North America used to tell immigrant parents that it was better for their children's schooling if they spoke English at home. Bilingual development sometimes results in slightly slower language development than for some monolingual children. Don't bilingual children ever mix their languages up? Like adult bilinguals, bilingual children often use words from one language when speaking the other. One problem can be balance. Relax.