The debate of nature versus nurture is quite old and research has proved the role of both factors in child development and learning. The nature or genetic factors could not be controlled but nurture or environmental factors are in our hands. The factors that affect early child learning and development range from personal factors to environmental factors. The factors which I consider influential in child learning include motivation, parental involvement, access to playing materials like play-doh, mega blocks, story books etc., parenting styles, teaching styles, relationship with peers or parents and freedom to express ones interests. According to Shriver (2016) the home, family and daily life of any child have strong impact on his or her learning. The factors identified which could affect child’s early learning include family income, parent’s education, stability of life at home, the number of parents in the home, quality of childcare, joining preschool, access to play materials and books, number of languages spoken at home and exposure to stress in the womb, as an infant or as a child.
The instructors of children whether they are parents or teachers should consider that child undergoes different kinds of developments in their early life which encompass physical development, communication development, cognitive development, social development and most importantly moral development. The physical growth of children involves being skilled in different motor tasks such as simply rolling to finally riding a tricycle. As muscles of the children slightly develop, they move from seizing and easing beads to eventually writing. When it comes to communication development of child, children are more receptive and open to learning in the first five years of their lives. If communication level of child is low at this age then the responses which are necessary for the progress are unlikely to develop in the child and communication development could be delayed (“Factors that Affect Child Development” 2017). Cognitive development of child involves his or her intellectual development. I personally believe that cognitive development is highly influenced by the environment in the form of exposure and stimulation. Many theorists have arguments over personality and abilities playing their roles in mental development of the child. But my opinion is that keeping in view the personality and abilities of the child, the required teaching strategy should be adopted. If the child is allowed to play freely according to his or her own interests, it would bring out the hidden talents and reveal the unique thinking patterns of child. As stated by Piaget learning and intellectual development is an active process and it could never be passive. He argued that cognitive development is a continuous process that involves adaptation to the environment. The child is not just gaining information passively rather he is actively transforming his thoughts to fit into the real world around him (Anastasia, 2018). Piaget’s theory also support the notion that teacher or tutor of young children should act as a facilitator and should not direct their each and every activity.
As a child grows, he becomes more independent in decision making and conflict resolution. My pedagogical philosophy states that the children moral development is highly dependent on what is encouraged or reinforced by the parents or teachers in the early years of life. The cognitive pattern and moral thinking developed in childhood affects decision making while facing moral dilemmas later in life. Molchanov (2013) stated that moral development and social development could not be separated from each other. Moral development is one of the main aspect of socialization. The education gained at school plays central role in setting moral norms.
Play is considered as very important for the child’s learning and development. If the child engages in meaningful play under the guidance of teachers or parents, it would be extremely beneficial for the growth of the child. Play-doh is commonly used as a teaching resource in preschool classrooms and at home for children. Play-doh is a soft modeling material used by children for creating different objects and making models. The soft molding nature of play-doh makes it possible for the young children to satisfy their curiosity by transforming it into various objects. It is usually made out of flour, water and salt. The availability of play-doh in different colours makes it more appealing and attractive to children. The tutors or adults utilize it to teach children about sensorimotor skills, scientific and mathematical skills, creative skills, problem solving skills, language skills, social skills and emotional skills. As a teacher I could not be extensively directive in telling children how to play with the playdough? I have to give things in their hands and let them create whatever they want to. The strategy of allowing children to play with play-doh freely would bring out their unique thinking styles and boost their creativity. Molding, Squeezing and pressing play-doh is a great energy outlet for the children. They learn to correct and remake what they think is not suitable which brings sense of autonomy and responsibility in the children.
The learning benefits of playing with the play-doh are enormous. It serves to inculcate many life skills in children indirectly. As mentioned above it has a wide range of learning, developmental and sensory advantages for children. According to Stewart (2009) teachers usually do not have any specific agenda or required outcome in their minds when they introduce young children to play-doh. The most important feature of play-doh is the word “play” which means that children can use it the way they want to. While playing with the play-doh the children excessively use fine muscles in their hands which increase their motor strength and help them develop grip and control over the things they hold. From playing with the play-doh, they gradually develop muscle strength to hold things which make them better in writing, drawing, closing buttons and other relevant motor skills.
A lot of creativity and imagination takes place during play with play-doh. Children express themselves by creating various objects through art and play. Side by side they are learning symbolic thinking by molding play-doh into different things and pretending play-doh is something else. They use their daily observation while making different things. They make what they observe. The preschoolers of age 4 to 5 years usually engage in more details while forming things from play-doh. They get more imaginative with the passage of time. They may think themselves of construction worker who is building roads, fashion designer making different beautiful clothes, bakery chefs making cakes and pastry and lot more. The imagination of children has no end and play-doh provides them with the opportunity to fully express their ideas and observations. The teacher or adults can join children in their pretend play and help them in being more creative and imaginative. Children are able to create at least something on their own while using play-doh which makes them feel competent and accomplished. Kids also get sometimes angry and stressed. Playing with play-doh and engaging in flattening, pressing, squeezing and molding will provide an energy outlet which could be helpful in releasing their negative emotions. Children feel relax while playing with the play-doh which could be effective strategy for the teachers to relax children between difficult tasks. While allowing children to play in groups with play-doh will promote their social learning. Playmates will communicate with each other and learn to get along with each other. Tutors can comment on their work like “you cut it again” and ask questions to children about their work like “what does this do?” The play of children could be connected to the real world by realizing them to make red potato from dough as green one may not ripe. Tutors can teach cooperation by offering help in making different things. Children can be made to compare or observe actions by making them attentive towards actions being done by the teacher like “I am rolling my dough too.” Such meaningful kind of interactions would contribute to learning or development and prepare child for future success in school as well as in life. Using play-doh help children in developing their language skills as they listen and talk to their friends, teachers, adults and siblings in order to explain what they have made. They label their creations and make stories out of them which enhance their vocabulary. Mathematical skills can also be learned as children count while adding ingredients and number of products they have made. Children notice the change in size and shape of different objects. Teachers can encourage mathematical thinking by asking questions like “What shape is that?” Which stick is longer? or How many cups do you have now? Such kind of mathematical thinking prepare children for understanding complex mathematical concepts later. Teacher can make children to think scientifically by making them realize about texture of the dough before and after adding water. Thus playing with play-doh provide greater opportunities to learn scientific concepts (“Playdough Power”).
Constructivism theory, based on the scientific study and observation about how learning takes place, supports the utilization of play-doh for learning and development. Constructivism states that people, through their experiences and then reflecting on their experiences, construct their personal knowledge and understanding of the world. When people encounter something new or different, they try to assimilate it with their previous knowledge and experiences, either by altering what they believe or by tossing out the new information considering it as irrelevant. The role of teacher is to encourage learning and reflection process. Another big role of teacher in constructivist model is to ask good questions. As I have mentioned earlier that learning through play-doh requires adults to ask questions regarding children ongoing work which is quite in line with the constructivism notions. When children are playing with play-doh, the teacher or an adult act as a facilitator same as constructivist propose that teacher should moderate, coach, mediate and help children in developing and assessing their understanding. The constructivists support that students should have freedom to ask questions, experiment themselves and try things that may or may not work out. They consider talk about the activities and reflection on the progress is essential for learning and all this could be achieved when children play with play-doh. (“Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning” 2004).
Mega blocks are another commonly used source for supporting learning and development in early childhood. Play blocks now come in different types and forms. Some with printed pictures of various things, some having numbers on it, some are displaying letters and some of them are just blank to provide opportunity to build anything from them. Blocks are essential part of early years of every child. Children love to play with them and construct new things which inspire them. Blocks are useful for all the ages and their utility is not just limited to toddlers. The child who is one to two years old use them in simple way by just observing their sounds and arranging them in random manner. As child grows older, they start building more structured models from the blocks which reflect their intellectual maturity. So play blocks are useful for the children of all ages in enhancing their learning process.
The role of mega blocks in learning and development is wide spread. Like other teaching resources block play also promote motor development, creative skills, scientific skills, social and emotional development, language development and cognitive development. The unique feature of building and construction in block play is highly associated with development of mathematical and spatial skills in children. The study carried out by Trawick- Smith et al. (2017) supported the link between block play and development of mathematical ability. The study was conducted in naturalistic free play environment involving 41 preschool children which were video recorded during block play. The results revealed that complexity of children’s buildings was predicted by percentage of structures that were built without toys and level of social participation. The complexity in building during play was found to be linked with growth in learning of math.
Abstract thinking and reasoning is developed while arranging simple blocks into complex structurtes. Ostuka and Jay (2017) conducted a study on preschool children (3 to 4 years old) during block play to explore development of abstract thinking in a nursery school of England. Following a social influence approach, the researcher adopted close listening strategy to record ideas of children in different representations and it was done through video observations. The behaviours which were connected with aspects of “functional dependency relationship” were identified. Three prominent features were pointed out which link abstract thinking with symbolic representations. The features were “(i) child/child sharing of thinking and adult and child sharing of thinking, (ii) pause for reflection, and (iii) satisfaction as a result of self-directed play.” These features were pointed out as learning signs which could help understand the importance of quality play and encourage educators to plan a learning environment which would be meaningful for children. The study has clearly showed the value of block play in promotion of abstract thinking.
Problem solving through trial and error is another unique feature of block play. As stated by Cinamon (2017) the challenges rise when children start making more complex structures. The towers build by them sometimes collapse which make them think about the reasons behind to save themselves from future worries. Sometimes they run out of blocks while building complex structures which make them learn to estimate the right number of blocks required for building specific structure. They learn to solve their problems through trial and error and finally reach the appropriate solution. They learn sequencing the blocks which could lead to success in building any complex structure which in turn help them to read or communicate with sense of chronology. So building blocks not only serve as improving cognition but is also an essential tool for advancing children verbal and reading skills.
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development stated that social interaction is essential for enhancing cognitive development and learning in children. He supported the notion that conflict and problem solving are essential ingredients for development. His theory is based on three social cognitive processes. The first one is zone of proximal development which is the difference between what child can learn with the guidance and help of parents, teachers or peers and what the child is capable of doing alone without taking help from others. The second is the movement from interpersonal information to intrapersonal information and third one is transformation from implicit rules that depends on the events remembered by the child to explicit rules that involves actually participating in the play behaviour (“Play and the Learning Environment”). The block play would be more beneficial for the child if it is done under the guidance of teachers or parents or if it involves interaction with peers. This would bring new ideas and enhance child abstract thinking. Sometimes child is unable to find appropriate solution while playing with blocks. In this scenario certain provoking questions from adults would help him or her to reach the required solution.
Like games story books are greatly helpful in learning at early ages. The creatively written stories always have something meaningful for the children. Most story books end with giving certain moral to the child which is helpful in child moral development. Different books have their own themes with relevant learning outcomes. One such book is The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters
which is about the postman delivering letters to different characters of fairy tales. Each page contains envelope with a letter tucked inside. The six envelopes possess letter of apology from Goldilocks to three bears and invitation for the party, the advertising circular is received by wicked witch from Hobgoblin Supplies Limited, a postcard from Jack for the Big Giant, a letter for Cinderella from Peter Piper Press for approval of little book for children narrating tale of Cinderella, a letter by solicitor for the wolf who ate Grandma of Red-Riding Hood for leaving the cottage and a letter to Goldilocks from Mrs Bunting and baby to wish her birthday along with one pound note (Ahlberg and Ahlberg, 1986). Looking deep into this classic and innovative book, one thing is quite clear that it could be useful for children of all ages. The book can be creatively used in different ways to support learning and development at early ages.
As this book is giving exposure to letters and envelopes, teachers or parents can use it for teaching child about how to write letters and address envelopes. The whole process of writing letters and posting them could be easily explained through this creative book as it contains all the details like having stamps on the back of envelope. Children could easily realize where to write address and put stamp on the envelope. The writing of letters could be very simple for the younger children and as they grow, they can be taught to write more detail ones. Another interesting feature of this book is type of letters written. The apology letter from Goldilocks to three bears could be very helpful in moral development of the child as they learn to apologize when they do something wrong. It also guides them towards how to apologize to others if they harm them in any way. The importance of accepting your mistake and offering sincere apology is clearly reflected through the apology letter. Additionally teacher or parents can make children understand that a sincere apology should be accepted. The advertising circular provides the opportunity to learn about the selling and buying of things. The different items printed on the circular could be related to real items present in the shops and through small activities children could be taught how to select and buy things from the shops. The approval letter for the book to Cinderella could be used to remind children of the ethical issues related to book publishing regarding someone’s personal life. The basic manners like respecting others privacy and seeking permission before revealing any aspect of someone’s personal life is clearly reflected from the book. The letter to Grandma by solicitor could provide children with another moral lesson that if they do something wrong, they have to face the punishment. They could not get away with anything and everything. The birthday wish from Mrs Bunting could help children learn how to wish others on their birthdays and one pound note make them realize about the importance of exchanging gifts. In short, the book is extremely useful for moral, social and emotional development of the child.
The moral development of child is very important and early childhood events definitely play their role. Kohlberg theory of moral development considers it as a continuous process which take place throughout the life span. The three stages of moral development that is pre conventional morality, conventional morality and post conventional morality describes the moral reasoning at different stages of life. At the pre conventional level the children view rules as fixed and they think that rules should be followed to avoid punishment. The conventional stage makes individual to live up to expectations or standards of society and child want to be called as good boy or good girl. The third stage is based on living up to universal principles of ethics and people follow principles of justice which are internalized even if there is conflict between with the laws (Cherry, 2018). The book The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters can be utilized to teach principles of justice and ethics to the child. The child can be made to realize the difference between right and wrong or good and bad. The child can also learn what to do in a situation if he or she has done something wrong. The universal principles of morality and ethics can be internalized through this book.
Conclusion
Conclusively it can be stated that the learning and development of children in early years is affected by various factors which range from personal to environmental. Adults can support learning in early years by utilizing different teaching resources such as play-doh, mega bloks and story books. The combination of resources used would enhance the cognitive development, physical development, social and emotional development, communication development and moral development of the child. The role of teachers or parents should be more facilitative than directive. The social interaction with peers and community is essential for mental health of the child. The exposure and stimulation provided to the child through creative teaching resources in early years is great predictor of success in later years.
References
Ahlberg, J. and Ahlberg, A., 1986. The jolly postman, or, other people's letters. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Anastasia, 2018. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. [Online] Available at: https://www.cleverism.com/piagets-theory/ [Accessed June 29, 2018]
Cherry, K. 2018. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. [Online] Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/kohlbergs-theory-of-moral-developmet-2795071 [Accessed June 29, 2018]
Cinamon, A. 2017. The importance of block play in early childhood education. [Online] Available at: https://jccmatters.org/2017/03/06/block-play/ [Accessed June 29, 2018]
Constructivism as a paradigm for teaching and learning. 2004. [Online] Available at: https://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/ [Accessed June 29, 2018]
Factors that affect child development, 2017. [Online] Available at: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/childcare/factors-affect-child-development-8389.php [Accessed June 29, 2018]
Molchanov, S.V., 2013. The moral development in childhood. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 86, pp.615-620.
Otsuka, K. and Jay, T., 2017. Understanding and supporting block play: Video observation research on preschoolers’ block play to identify features associated with the development of abstract thinking. Early Child Development and Care. 187(5-6), pp.990-1003.
Playdough power. [Online] Available at: https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/playdough-power [Accessed June 29, 2018]
Play and the learning environment. [Online] Available at: https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/53567_ch_10.pdf [Accessed June 29, 2018]
Shriver, 2016. What are some factors that affect early learning? [Online] Available at: https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/early-learning/conditioninfo/factors [Accessed June 29, 2018]
Stewart, D. 2009. Benefits of playdough in the preschool classroom. [Online] Available at: https://teachpreschool.org/2009/12/03/playdough-in-the-preschool-classroom/ [Accessed June 29, 2018]
Trawick-Smith, J., Swaminathan, S., Baton, B., Danieluk, C., Marsh, S. and Szarwacki, M., 2017. Block play and mathematics learning in preschool: The effects of building complexity, peer and teacher interactions in the block area, and replica play materials. Journal of Early Childhood Research. 15(4), pp.433-448.
