“Play is developmentally appropriate for primary-age
children and can provide them with opportunities that
enrich the learning experience” (Copple & Bredekamp
2009). Early childhood education holds two main focuses;
a child-based focus and a family-based focus. Early
childhood education has positive outcomes on the child
through their learning experiences, and their growth and
development. Based on the family, the results of early
education happen through the communication that the
family has with the educators and by the encouragement
they get from within themselves, and also from the
educators.
Children learn most of what they know through play. There
are many ways in which a child learns on a daily basis, they
learn the skills and …show more content…
Educators can facilitate the children with different
materials and environments in the classrooms that are in
the early learning centres. The children need to develop
their minds cognitively. “Children actively construct
knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world”
(Berk 2007). Children are needing to develop their abilities
through their play experiences, and also through their play
experiences, they can develop appropriately. Early
childhood education plays a large part in a child's early
development. Children develop cognition through two
main stages that Jean Piaget theorized. The stages run from
birth and infancy to school age children. Sensorimotor is
the first stage and goes from birth to about the age of two.
This stage implies that the children learn about the
environment they live in and they learn this through the
reflexes and movements they produce. They also learn that
they are separate people from their parents and they can
say goodbye to them and know they will come back. The
second stage is called the preoperational stage. During this
stage of development, children will learn how to
incorporate symbols to represent objects. This is also the
beginning of learning the alphabet and speech. The child is
still very much egocentric at this point in time, but with the
help of understanding educators, the child will grow
appropriately onto the next stages of development. Finally,
the children need to develop emotionally/socially.