Play and Early Childhood

Abstract

The value of play has been summarized by Sapora and Mitchell as 'proportionate to its power to interest the player, absorb his attention, and arouse him to enthusiastic and persistent activity'. In 1960 at the Nebraska Symposium on 'Motivation', Robert White said, 'Play may be fun, but it is also a serious business in childhood. Play is an integral part of the child's being. It is the business of childhood and it has a unique and vital role in the whole educational process. It is through play that they grow, and the growth in turn acts as a stimulus to change through play, which is learning. The relationship is a reciprocal, totally integrated one: play and growing – growing and play. Studies have shown that children who come from working-class homes often have parents who are at a loss to see the educational functions of play or toys. Play is a major achieving pattern of children.