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32.2.3: Play and Curriculum

  • Page ID
    142691
    • Amanda Taintor
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    The Importance of Play

    Scientists who study how infants think and feel often describe them as small scientists: like their adult counterparts, infants constantly experiment and investigate to figure things out. ((Gopnik, Kuhl, & Meltzoff, The scientist in the crib: Minds, brains, and how children learn, 1999)) Infants spend their days actively gathering and organizing information about what objects and people are like, and they do much of this discovery through play. According to Gopnik, Meltzoff, and Kuhl (2000), infants actively build knowledge as they interact with the world around them. They try a variety of ways to act on objects and materials and, in doing so, experiment with and build concepts and ideas.

    In the early twentieth century, scientists and theorists—such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky—developed widely studied theories to explain how infants acquire knowledge. Their theories are commonly encountered in many other early childhood areas of study. [1]

    In most of these theories, infants actively construct concepts and build skills by interacting with objects and people, often occurring in the context of play. The body of research on the young infant's developing mind adds to our understanding of teaching and planning an infant's curriculum. Studies show infants are highly motivated to explore new materials and take on new challenges (Bowman, Donovan, and Burns 2000.) Moments often discounted as "just play" or as "fiddling around" are moments in which infants are actively learning (Hirsh-Pasek et al. 2009; Jones and Reynolds 2011; Zigler, Singer, and Bishop-Josef 2004; Elkind 2007.) While engaged in play, infants explore the physical properties of materials and the possibilities for action, transformation, or representation.[2] Capturing these moments of play through documentation and linking them to areas of development help other stakeholders understand the importance of play in development and as an integral part of curriculum.[3]


    [1] How Young Children Learn - What Science Reveals is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, & Clint Springer.

    [2] Early Education and Support Division, California Department of Education. (2016 ). BEST PRACTICES FOR PLANNING CURRICULUM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. The Integrated Nature of Learning is used with permission.

    [3] How Young Children Learn - What Science Reveals is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, & Clint Springer.


    This page titled 32.2.3: Play and Curriculum is shared under a mixed 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Amanda Taintor.