Playing is not a waste of time! A child who is creatively playing (for example, in dramatic role-playing with other children) can develop the ability to momentarily control his or her emotions and behavior — the sole focus is on the dramatic role.
Children can learn to exert self-control and discipline and to focus instead on the story that they are acting out. People who can control their own behavior in this way have developed the quality of self-regulation. Children who have self-regulation are better able to control their impulsive behavior and to focus on the task at hand — important qualities that are needed to excel in school.
Unfortunately, many children’s days are spent doing three things: watching television, playing video games, and listening to lessons. These are passive activities that turn children into observers rather than active participants in life. Developing the quality of self-regulation may then become very difficult.
Adults have a useful role in encouraging and coaching constructive play. Early childhood educators, older children, and parents can help children take their play to higher levels of productivity, so they can begin to develop self-regulation. Following are some reminders about valuable play activities:
Complex Imaginative Play. This is play where the children plan dramatic scenes and act them out. Elaborate scenes that last for a long time are best — these require each child to act out a character, thus providing practice in sticking to a role and in focusing on a story line. Realistic props are OK, but there is more value in encouraging children to use symbolic props that they create and make through their imaginations. For example, a stick becomes a sword, sand becomes a cake, and building blocks become a car.
Activities That Require Planning are good for developing focus and patience. Some examples are planning games with directions, developing patterns for construction, creating recipes for cooking.
Storybook Reading can be valuable when the teacher continually involves the children as participants by asking them questions throughout. The questions may serve to focus children’s attention, to check their comprehension, and to get them to use language to describe objects, such as color, size, and number. Children can also be asked for explanations of behavior (“Why did she do that?”), predictions (What do you think will happen next?”), and connections between events in the story and those in the child’s own life (“Did anything like that ever happen to you?”). This challenging conversation is valuable because it enables children to use language to reflect upon themselves and to express themselves. It also promotes self-regulation because many children's stories are filled with characters who show effective self-regulatory strategies. Some examples are the Little Engine That Could, the Runaway Bunny, and Frances, the little raccoon.
Simon Says is a game that requires children to stop and start their own behavior. You have to think and not do something, which helps to build self-discipline and self-regulation.
Freeze. In a normal game of Freeze, music plays and children dance and jiggle until the music abruptly cuts off and the children freeze in place. The Tools of the Mind curriculum has developed a different version of the game — one that enriches self-regulation. As the music plays, the teacher holds a picture of a stick figure in a certain pose above her head. The children are supposed to observe the position of the figure without doing it, and when the music stops, they assume that position and that position only.
The important aspect of this version of Freeze is the practice of self-control by observing the stick figure without immediately doing as the stick figure does. Children who have self-control have advantages at school — imagine the benefit to their future lives when they have to wait in cafeteria lines or raise their hands to be called on in elementary schools and beyond.
Resources
The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) has published a new resource entitled Making the Most of Playtime, which offers tips and strategies to consider when playing with an infant or toddler. Access it here.
Center for Early Literacy Learning
“Things to Do while You're Waiting: Physical Activities” from the Illinois Early Learning Project — printable tip sheets.
ECE Resource Library and Article Archive
