Myself and My Body
• Lecture notes comprise of
chapter’s 7 & 8 of your text and
additional supplementary texts
• Goal of today’s lecture
– Exploring curriculum methods to
promoting the understanding of self
and the body among preschoolers
– Explore the role of language and
literacy development in children
– Explore the role of play in promoting
physical and language development
– Explore appropriate curriculum
development methods
Myself and My Body
Chapter 7
Key Points Regarding Play
• Play and physical development
improves development in the
cognitive and socio-emotional
domains
– Brain development and
neuroscience
• Children should experience a
physical fitness curriculum of 30 to
60 minutes daily
– Fitness routines and basic
physical movements
– Good for forming good habits
• Children should be encouraged to
watch less TV daily and view more
videos that encourage physical
fitness
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
• According to Gallahue (1993), children move through a
sequence of motor skill development.
– Reflexive movement. (birth to 1yr).
• Infants engage in reflexive movements
– Rudimentary movement. (2 yrs).
• Basic motor skills acquired during infancy: Reaching, grasping sitting, standing,
walking.
– Fundamental movement. (2-7yrs).
• Greater control over motor skills such as running, jumping, throwing, and
catching. Isolated movement schemes are combined to form more complex
movements.
– Specialized movement. (7-to teens years).
• Execution of skills committed to certain sports or recreation.
More on Fundamental Movement & Activities
• Take basic movements (i.e. walking,
hoping) and change conditions (i.e.
speed or pace)
• Using a follow the leader approach
• Movements that resemble animals
• Create an obstacle course or simulate
ways of crossing a river
• Use nursery rhymes to stimulate
movement
• Suggest ways to go around a dowel or
other stick
• Lay out foot patterns on the floor for
practicing fundamental locomotor
movements
Characteristics of Motor Development
• Preschoolers exhibit capability of a range of motor skills
regarding Gross motor development.
– Locomotor skills.
• Movements that facilitate jumping, hopping, running, and climbing.
– Fine-Motor skills.
• Preschool children learn to work with puzzles; cut with scissors; use
brushes, pencils, pens, and markers. They manipulate blocks and clay.
– Perceptual-Motor skills.
• The ability to combine senses with emerging motor skills to engage
the environment.
Play and Physical Development: Factors of
Consideration
• Today, children are more sedentary than 20 years ago.
• Childhood obesity and rising health problems is on the
rise
• Rise of non-traditional families (both parents working,
single-parent families); often producing latch-key kids.
• Diminishing settings for free play
The Role and Importance of Play
in Children’s Development
Categories of Play
• Directed Physical Play.
– A comprehensive preschool program
• Locomotor skills to include walking, running, hopping,
throwing, catching, and other motor skills.
• Fine motor skills such as block construction, sand play,
and art activities.
– Organized physical sports
• Soccer, basketball, or T-ball; usually for kids 4 to 5 yrs of
age.
Free Play
• Free play vs. Structured play.
– Studies have noted that free play promotes greater
muscular endurance and motor behaviors.
• Free play is often restricted due to concerns for
safety regarding children.
– Children play hard
– Unsafe neighborhoods
• Through monitoring, adults are charged to provide a good balance
of free play and structured play with many opportunities of
expression.
Adult Roles in Physical Play
• Play is diminishing in the presence of
– Television
– Video games
– Rising technocratic society.
• Adults have responsibility to ensure that children
receive adequate amounts of time engaged in play
and exercise.
•OR ELSE
•
•
•
.
Health is compromised
Important physical milestones are compromised
Social and emotional development can be compromised
Characteristics of Cognitive Development
• According to Piaget
– Children are preoperational
– Children are able to use symbolic reasoning.
– Preschoolers are still egocentric.
• Seeing the world from a singular point of view.
• Between 2-4yrs
– Children develop symbolic function.
• The ability to picture things through imagination
that are not present.
• Intuitive Thought (ages 4-7yrs)
– Development of intuitive thought.
– Begin to experiment with ordering and
collecting things but it is still limited.
(Challenge of centration)
• Children are still very primitive in their reasoning
Piaget’s Level of Cognitive Play
• Practice/Functional Play.
– Sensory-motor play.
• Symbolic Play.
– Initially appears during sensory motor stage but
transitions to preoperationional.
– Play through imagination and imitation of reality.
– Also evolving to games with rules.
Smilansky’s Levels of Cognitive Play
• Children from 3 to school age alternate between levels of play.
• Functional Play.
– Physical play activities. The child uses repetition in physical actions,
language, and manipulation of toys.
• Constructive Play.
– Children move from handling objects and materials to constructing or
building for fun.
• Dramatic/Pretend Play.
– Imitation of human relationships thru symbolic representations.
Vygotsky’s Perception of the Functions of Play
• Representational Play.
– Make-believe play which permits
the child to deal with unrealizable
desires.
• Fantasy Play.
– Develops as toddlers must learn to
follow approved behaviors and
delay gratification.
– As the child matures, fantasy play
increases as expectations by
society increases
Adult Facilitation to Produce Maximum Outcomes
• Provide activities that lead to greater
thinking and problem-solving.
• Provide children with stimulating
environments.
• Be encouraging, positive, and supporting.
• Distinguish between play as manipulation
and play as active education.
• Provide opportunities for children to
engage in dramatic play that encourages
cooperation and negotiation.
• Make available materials that encourage
representation through construction
BENEFITS OF BEING PHYSICALLY FIT
• Weight control
• Decreased blood pressure
• Improved concentration, retention, and attention
• Decreased disruptive behavior
• Reduced risk of diabetes and heart disease
• Healthy bones, joints, and muscles
• Better overall health
• Decreased anxiety, stress, and depression
• Increased energy and strength
• More positive self-esteem
Language and Literacy Development
Chapter 8
Language Development
• Verbal imitations of language begin in the first year of
life
– Sensitive years for language development
– Children observe and begin to memic—starting small and
moving to more complex combinations of word usage
• By 5 years, children tend to have a large vocabulary,
speak in sentences, and often able to use proper syntax
or grammar
– Children copy the language style of their family,
neighborhoods, and key people around them
The Power of Language/Literacy
• Language is
instrumental to:
–
–
–
–
Thought
Personal expression
Social communication
Friendship
development
– Conflict resolution
– Later academic
performance
Play and Language/Literacy Development
• Symbolic play is key to
language and literacy
development
– It improves one’s ability at
decontextualization
THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE
LITTLE PIGS
By the Wolf
Alexander Wolf
THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS
• Discuss the learning points
• Develop curriculum maps
– Topic: The Three Little Pigs
– Links to other learning domains and other concepts derived
from the Three Little Pigs story
– Develop five lesson plans (i.e., math/science,
language/literacy, social studies, music/movement,
art/aesthetics)
– Develop a list of web and resource references that teachers
can use to be effective doing the noted activities (a minimum
of 10)