Value of Play-Based Classrooms

03/23/2021

Value of Play-Based Classrooms

Asking teachers to follow scripted curriculum is like asking artists to paint by number.
John Spencer

“A number of well-controlled studies have compared the effects of academically oriented early education classrooms with those of play-based classrooms...,” wrote Peter Gray, Ph.D., in a Psychology Today article.

“The results are quite consistent from study to study: Early academic training somewhat increases children’s immediate scores on the specific tests that the training is aimed at (no surprise), but these initial gains wash out within 1 to 3 years and, at least in some studies, are eventually reversed. Perhaps more tragic than the lack of long-term academic advantage of early academic instruction is evidence that such instruction can produce long-term harm, especially in the realms of social and emotional development.”

In her popular book, A Young Writer’s World: Creating Early Childhood Classrooms Where Authors Abound, Rebecca McMahon Giles, Ph.D., explains how play-based activities best help young children develop the skills needed as they begin to experiment with writing. She provides these ideas:

“Offer Opportunities to Encourage Fine Motor Development

• Provide spray water bottles to care for plants or create sidewalk art.

• Place child-safe tweezers or tongs, small malleable items (sponge pieces or pom-poms) and numbered sorting containers (ice cube trays or muffin tins) in the math center.

• Provide spring-loaded clothespins in the housekeeping center to hang doll clothes and costumes or in the science center to sequence picture cards on a line.

• Add small child-sized paper punches to the art center.

• Provide small tops to spin in the fine motor area.

• Display cards, coins, or buttons on the floor, and encourage children to turn them over.

• Put a manual eggbeater in the water table to create bubbles with dish washing liquid.

• Provide plastic eyedroppers for art projects or science experiments.

• Place finger puppets in the library/listening center.”

Source: “Early Academic Training Produces Long-Term Harm:
Research reveals potential risks of academic preschools and kindergartens,” by Peter Gray, Ph.D., Psychology Today, May 5, 2015

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