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- Research has found that play-based learning is crucial for development, especially for children in Grade R.
- Children who don't play enough often grow up to be anxious, socially maladjusted adults.
- An expert says that structured play helps kids gain problem-solving skills and teaches them to collaborate better with others.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
Play-based learning is essentially learning through play, which is crucial in early childhood development, especially for Grade R learners.
According to US-Based research, The Serious Need for Play, free, imaginative play is important for young children's social, emotional and cognitive development.
The research found that kids who do not play enough in their early childhood often become anxious, socially maladjusted adults.
Another South African research paper, titled Towards a South African Pedagogy of Play, found that play-based learning provided important life skills.
It also helped to develop kids' ability to collaborate with others, navigate uncertainty and solve problems effectively.
The foundation phase curriculum manager at Curro Holdings, Susan Burgess, echoed the same sentiment, stressing that school readiness was not the only thing to consider in Grade R. The learners' bodies needed to be equally ready to aid with confidence.
"Everything to do with play is so important in Grade R because we are developing a whole child, and we want to develop their whole body.
"The biggest gift a parent or a school can give a child is to have them develop their skills, so they can have confidence. We talk about body readiness and not school readiness because you're getting the whole body ready. The physical, the emotional, the psychological, and then also the cognitive skills," she said.
The way in which structured play works with a Grade R child, according to Burgess, is that the first two terms are about getting the child's body ready through playful movement, including climbing and balancing.
The remaining two terms of the year include introducing more formal activities that develop skills like emergent reading.
She told News24:
Burgess explained that Grade R was meant to be fun and educational because it was the bridge between pre-school, where there was a lot of free play, and primary school, where they must be ready for abstract activities, such as symbols, numbers, reading and more.
"Structured play is according to a curriculum. They are doing a lot of creative artwork, where they start on a blank page, they plan what their activities are… they communicate, they collaborate with each other, they learn life skills by solving real-life problems.
"If they are outside and they play with water, and there aren't enough jugs to play with, then they will make another plan. They will wait their turn. They learn to be kind to each other. There are a lot of skills that are being developed because they are playing in a real work situation," Burgess said.
