Child development article reflection For this assignment you will read the attached article and reflectively discuss the following: (Ex. what does the article say about these topics and how might you connect this information to your interactions with children?)”Scaffolding the use of Props in a symbolic way””Scaffolding childrens play: Planning”.”Scaffolding the use of Language in play”How does the discussion on play in this article relate to information in chapter 10 (pages 192 and 193) on the categories, cognitive dimensions, and social dimensions of play? Does this article change your answer to the statement, “All they do is play in preschool. What are they learning by ‘just playing'”?” Why or why not? Assessing and Scaffolding
Make-Believe Play
Deborah J. Leong and Elena Bodrova
It is the third week that Ms. Sottos preschool classroom has been turned
into an airport. The literacy center is a ticket counter, with a travel agency
complete with child-made passports, tickets, and travel brochures. In the
block area the children have constructed a walk-through X-ray scanner from
cardboard boxes. A smaller box with openings on both ends functions as the
screening device for carry-on luggage. There is an airplane cockpit made out
of a big piece of cardboard with child-drawn instruments, an upside-down egg
carton for a keyboard, and a paper plate that functions as the steering wheel.
Sophia tells her friend Vince that she is going on a trip and that she is going
to forget to take out her water bottle. Then she wont be able to get through
security. Vince says he is going to go to Puerto Rico where his grandmother
lives. Sophia puts on her backpack and stands in line behind Vince. Finally
its her turn.
Where are you going? asks Tanya, the child behind the counter. Im goin
to Puerto Rico too. OK. Heres your passport and your ticket to Puerto Rico.
Your flight leaves at 77 oclock. Tanya hands two pieces of torn construction
paper to Sophia. Sophia goes to another center and takes off her shoes. She
puts them in a basket with her backpack, then pushes the basket through the
scanner. Amir, who is the security guard, waits until Sophia walks through the
X-ray frame, then waves a paper towel roll wand over her head. OK, he says,
you can go now. Another security guard, Milda, is standing with Sophias
backpack, holding the bottle of water that Sophia forgot to take out of her
backpack. This is more than three ounces! Oh, I forgot. Ill put it in my
cubby, says Sophia as she takes the bottle and runs to her cubby. Her next
stop is the passenger lounge.
© Julia Luckenbill
?????? hat is happening in Ms. Sottos classroom is an example of what
?????? most early childhood educators mean when they talk about
?????? make-believe playa fantasy world created by children where
their imagination soars, their language expands, and their social skills
develop. Unfortunately, play observed in many early childhood classrooms
rarely reaches this level; often children act out a series of
Deborah J. Leong, PhD, is director of the Tools of the Mind
simple and stereotypical scripts with little or no interacproject. She is professor emerita of cognitive and developmental
tion with their peers. Research provides more and more
psychology at the Metropolitan State College of Denver.
evidence of the positive effects that well-developed play
dleong2@mindspring.com
has on various areas of child development, such as chilElena Bodrova, PhD, is a principal researcher at Mid-continent
Research for Education and Learning in Denver, Colorado. She
drens social skills, emerging mathematical ability, mastery
is a coauthor of Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to
of early literacy concepts, and self-regulation (see Singer,
Early Childhood Education with Deborah Leong and of NAEYCs
Golinkoff, & Hirsh-Pasek 2006). It is also becoming increasBasics of Assessment: A Primer for Early Childhood Educators
ingly clear that without adult support, the play of many
with Oralie McAfee and Deborah Leong. ebodrova@mcrel.org
children is destined to never reach this fully developed sta®
tus. Teaching children to play has to be as intentional and
2, 3, 4
28
Young Children January 2012
Curriculum, Assessment, and Teaching: Putting It All Together
systematic as teaching literacy or math and at the same
time must take a form very different from adult-initiated
practices often used to teach these content-related skills.
A Vygotskian approach to scaffolding play
True to the saying that everything new is the well-forgotten old, the answer to todays challenges comes from the
pastfrom theories of play developed in the last century
by Lev Vygotsky and his student Daniel Elkonin. These
theories, along with the work done by students of Vygotsky
and Elkonin, are the foundation of the approach to scaffolding play we (the authors) currently use in our work with
teachers in early childhood classrooms.
In Vygotsky (1977) and Elkonins (2005) view, makebelieve play reaches its highest level of development in
the preschool and kindergarten years. However, this fully
developed or mature form of play does not emerge overnight. In fact, its earliest prerequisites develop in infancy,
as babies learn to imitate other peoples actions and begin
to communicate by using gestures and vocalizations.
Mastering language and forming emotional bonds with their
caregivers both prepare infants to learn from adults who
are their first play mentors. It is important to make sure
that infants have ample opportunities to engage in playful
interactions with adults during which they can practice
their first pretend actions. In this sense a simple peek-a-boo
game with an adult carries more educational value than any
smart toy one gives to a child to play with alone.
Toddlers take more steps toward developing mature makebelieve play as they move from mastering simple acts of putting on their clothes or brushing their hair to applying these
acts to their dolls and stuffed animals; sometimes they even
attempt to turn their pets into play partners. This is the time
when adult play mentoring andeven bettertoddlers
participation in play with older children can change play
Research provides more and more
evidence of the positive effects that
well-developed play has on various
areas of child development, such
as childrens social skills, emerging
mathematical ability, mastery of early
literacy concepts, and self-regulation.
Young Children January 2012
from being toy oriented to people oriented. As Daniel
Elkonin (1978, 187) put it, A child starts with feeding herself
with a spoon; then she uses the spoon to feed everyone;
then she uses the spoon to feed her doll; and finally feeds
the doll pretending to be the mommy who feeds her daughter (trans. by Bodrova). At this later stage, the play is no
longer about the spoon and not even about a specific dollit
is about the relationship between mother and daughter.
Reaching preschool age does not guarantee, however, that
a childs play stops being toy oriented. In fact, too many preschoolers continue to engage in play that would be appropriate for a 2-year-old but is something that 4-year-olds should
have long outgrown. To help teachers support higher levels
of play in these children, we have developed an approach
to assessing and scaffolding playPRoPELSthat focuses
on its most critical elements (Bodrova & Leong 2007).
Minding ones ps and rs when playing
PRoPELS is an acronym that stands for the most critical
elements of childrens play that can be assessed and scaffolded by the adults.
Planchildrens ability to think about play in advance of
playing
Roles children playincluding the actions, language,
and emotional expressions that are associated with a
specific role
Propsthe objects (real, symbolic, and imaginary) children use in play
Extended time frameplay that lasts for long stretches
of time: within one play session for an hour or longer
or extending over several play sessions and over several days
Languagewhat children say to develop a scenario or
coordinate the actions of different players as well as
speech associated with a particular role
Scenariowhat children act out, including the sequence
of scripts and interactions between roles
Using PRoPELS to assess play gives teachers an
idea of how mature play is in their classrooms. On
the continuum from most immature to most mature,
childrens make-believe play goes through five
stages, with all of its elements (outlined above in the
acronym PRoPELS) developing and expanding:
The earliest stagefirst scriptsis best described
in terms of object-oriented pretend actions, such as
a child playing with toy cars while making vroomvroom sounds.
An example of the next stageroles in actionwould
be a child walking back and forth in high heels and,
when asked, labeling her actions as playing mommy.
29
More mature play appears by stage 3roles with rules
and beginning scenarios. Children begin to coordinate their
pretend actions with their play partners, making sure that
these pretend actions go with the roles chosen by each of
the players. When children are at this stage, it is common
to hear them correcting each others behaviors when the
behaviors are not in line with the roles the children are
playing. For example, a child might comment if the patient
starts playing with the doctors stethoscope or the sales
associate walks off wearing shoes she was about to sell to a
customer.
Finally, at stage 5, planning and negotiating pretend
actions starts to take more time than actually carrying
them out. It is at this stage that children sometimes play
multiple roles without actually having physical partners
as they both direct and act out these roles with stuffed
animals or even imaginary partners.
An example of stage 4 play is found in the opening vignette
describing the airport play in Ms. Sottos room. Children engage in multiple pretend actions, all being consistent with
the roles they are playing while acting out complex scenarios.
The idea that we need to teach young children how to
play is not a new one; until recently, however, it has been
primarily discussed in terms of enhancing or facilitating
play that has already reached a certain level of develop-
The table below summarizes the changes in the PRoPELS
elements across different stages of play.
What PRoPELS play to new heights?
Five Stages in a Childs Make-Believe Play
1. First Scripts
2. Roles in Action
3. Roles with
Rules and Beginning Scenarios
4. Mature Roles,
Planned Scenarios,
and Symbolic Props
5. Dramatization, Multiple
Themes, Multiple Roles, and
Directors Play
Plan
Does not plan
during play.
Does not plan during
play.
Plans roles; actions
are named prior to
play.
Plans each scenario in
advance.
Plans elaborate themes,
scenarios, and complex roles.
Spends more time planning
than acting out the scenario.
Roles
Does not have
roles.
Acts first and then
decides on roles. No
rules are revealed.
Has roles with rules
that can be violated.
Has complex, multiple
roles.
Can play more than one role
at a time. Roles have social
relationships.
Props
Plays with objects
as objects.
Plays with objects as
props. Actions with a
prop result in a role.
Needs a prop for
the role.
Chooses symbolic and
pretend props.
Can pretend rather than actually have a prop. Does not
need a prop to stay in the role.
Objects can have roles.
Extended
Explores objects,
but not play
scenarios.
Creates scenarios
that last a few
minutes.
Creates scenarios
that last 1015
minutes.
Creates scenarios that
last 60 minutes or longer. With support, can
create scenarios that
last over several days.
Creates scenarios that last all
day and over several days.
Play can be interrupted and
restarted.
Language
Uses little
language.
Uses language to
describe actions.
Uses language to
describe roles and
actions.
Uses language to
describe roles and
actions. Uses role
speech.
Uses language to delineate
the scenario, roles, and action.
Book language is incorporated
into role speech.
Scenario
Does not create
a scenario. Can
copy what the
teacher does and
says or will follow the teachers
directions if script
is simple and
repetitive.
Creates a scenario
that is stereotypical,
with limited behaviors. Can incorporate modeled roles
and actions into
play, with support.
Plays familiar
scripts fully. Accepts
new script ideas.
Plays a series of coordinated scenarios that
change in response
to previous ones or
the desires of players.
Describes unfolding
scenario, roles, and
actions.
Plays a series of coordinated
scenarios that change in
response to previous ones or
the desires of players. Uses
themes from stories and
literature.
time
frame
30
Young Children January 2012
© Julia Luckenbill
ment. Explicit play instruction is often limited to the context of special education. While children with language
delays or emotional disorders are thought to benefit from
play interventions, children without such delays or disorders are usually expected to develop play skills on their
own. This approach, while valid in the past, can no longer
be adopted if we want all young children to develop mature
play. Massive changes in the culture of childhoodsuch as
the disappearance of multiage play groups, the increase in
time children spend in adult-directed activities after school,
and so onmean that, for many young children, early
childhood settings are the only place where they have the
opportunity to learn how to play.
?? t is important to note, however, that learning how to
?? play in the classroom will not look the same as learning
?? to play within the informal neighborhood peer groups
?? of yesterday. In the past, most play occurred in multiage groups in which younger children could learn from
older play experts, practice their play skills with peers of
the same age, and then pass their knowledge on to other
play novices. Under those conditions, even preschoolers could act out elaborate and imaginative scenarios like
castles or space travel, because the play skills of older
children would buoy their own skills. In todays early childhood settings, children are almost always segregated by
age and have to interact with play partners who are as inexperienced as they are. As a result, many of the play skills
that children learned in the past by observing and imitating
their older playmates now have to be taught directly by
teachers or learned from behaviors that teachers model.
In addition, unlike the unstructured play of the past that
often lasted for hours or days, playtime in todays early
childhood classroom is limited and rarely exceeds one or
Young Children January 2012
two hours. This means that to achieve rapid progress in the
quality of play, play scaffolding in the classroom needs to
be designed to strategically target its most critical components: childrens play Planning, their ability to take on and
maintain Roles, use of Props, Extended time frame, childrens use of Language, and the quality of play Scenarios.
In mature play, all of these discrete components are intertwined. However, we have found that at different levels of
play, children will have more difficulty with one aspect or
another. Using PRoPELS is best when you first observe childrens play without intervening. After assessing the level
of childrens independent play, you can then decide what
kind of scaffolding is the most appropriate. By highlighting
the different areas in which you as the teacher can scaffold,
you can be more efficient in providing scaffolds that support a given child or group of children.
Many of the play skills that children
learned in the past by observing
and imitating their older playmates
now have to be taught directly by
teachers or learned from behaviors
that teachers model.
31
© Julia Luckenbill
Scaffolding childrens play Planning. Elkonin (1978)
identified planning as one of the features of mature play,
describing play of older children as consisting mostly of
lengthy discussions of who is going to do what and how,
followed by brief periods of acting out. As with other components of play, role and scenario planning can benefit from
adult scaffolding. The teacher can start by asking children
what they want to play or what they want to be, encouraging them to discuss the choice of the roles with their peers.
Later, the teacher can ask children about more specific details of their future play scenarios, including what props they
might need or whether they need to assume a different role.
By making planning a necessary step in play, the teacher
directs childrens attention to the specifics of their roles
and to the existence of rules associated with them. Many
arguments that happen during play are over the fact that
two children have chosen the same role or because the
prop associated with that role is being used by another
child. Planning prior to children going to the center can
help prevent potential conflicts. Children can talk about the
possible conflict instead of fighting over the prop. Planning
allows children to discuss what might happen if there are
two people who want to be truck drivers and only one
truck. Having children agree to take turns before going to
the center teaches social problem-solving strategies and
starts the play off with positive interactions.
The planning process can take place orally, but if children represent their plans in drawing or pretend writing,
this process produces even greater benefits. First, as
children engage in drawing, they are able to focus on their
future play for a longer period of time, thus thinking over
more details of their pretend scenarios. Second, having a
tangible reminder helps children to regulate their own and
their partners behaviors; if a child has a picture of a veterinarian with her name on it, it becomes harder for another
child to usurp this role. It also makes it easier for the
teacher to troubleshoot possible conflicts and to engage
children in brainstorming solutions. If two children want to
be veterinarians, the teacher can introduce different kinds
of veterinarians, such as the ones who take care of pets and
those who treat large animals.
Planning also occurs during play when children change
the scenario, the props, and the roles. Mature players
discuss what is going to happen prior to it happening. For
example, children might discuss what will happen at the
fire station now that the fire is out. What other problems
might happen? Children at the higher levels of play are
able to plan on the fly, discuss possible directions for the
scenarios, incorporate the ideas of the different players
involved, and create props to match the changes in the play.
© Karen Phillips
Scaffolding development and maintaining play Roles
and rules. As Elkonin (1978) points out, the focus of mature
32
play is the social roles
and relationship between
peoplesomething that
children cannot learn by
simply observing adult
behaviors. Therefore,
to promote mature play,
teachers need to explain
the purpose of these
behaviors, their sequence,
the cause-and-effect relationships between different
behaviors, and so on. For
example, a teacher may
explain that a customer in
a restaurant cannot simply
go to the kitchen and get
a pizzafirst he needs to
give his order to a waiter.
The waiter will take the
order to a chef, and only
Young Children January 2012
Curriculum, Assessment, and Teaching: Putting It All Together
we are building now? What can we do to make this dog look
like a dalmatian?
Having children agree to take
turns before going to the center
teaches social problem-solving
strategies and starts the play off
with positive interactions.
then will the customer be served the pizza. It also helps
to discuss with the children what happens if the normal
sequence of events gets disrupted; a chef who has not
waited for the waiter to bring him a specific order may cook
something different from what the customer wants to eat.
The rules that hold make-believe play together are not
arbitrary but are based on the logic of real-life situations.
Therefore, not knowing how these life scripts unfold will
keep children from practicing self-regulated behaviors by
following these rules. Helping children learn about scripts,
and the rules that these scrip…
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