The Value of Constructive Play

Francis Wardle, Exchange Leader and author of Oh Boy! offers today's message:  

I just observed my three-year old granddaughter build a wall by stacking different-size unit blocks. At a certain point the whole thing came tumbling down. No worry: she simply rebuilt it.

Later she got hold of the Duplo® blocks and had a great time connecting them together. For a little one, this is quite difficult. But she persisted and figured out how the system works.

Then she took her crayons and carefully drew on a piece of paper. She created little islands of different marks, every time carefully changing colors. Then she would pound the tips of the crayons on the paper to make a series of dots. Finally, she took the red crayon and gleefully made swirling scribbles joining everything together.

These are all examples of constructive play. In Play, Development and Early Education, Johnson, Christie and Wardle define constructive play as "using objects (blocks, Legos®, TinkerToys®) or materials (sand, play-dough, paint) to make something." When early childhood educators discuss play, they usually focus on social-dramatic play, because it encourages social development and the use of language. Constructive play tends to be an after-thought.

And this is a shame!

By age four, constructive play is the most prevalent form of play. Through constructive play children learn about objects and materials, and how to use them to create, build, order, construct and manipulate. The famous American psychologist Jerome Bruner suggested that children who engage in lots of constructive play will become good overall problem solvers.

Further, through persisting in constructive play, children develop self-efficacy—the power to manipulate real objects, impact their environment and control their world. Later they learn to play collaboratively with other children to create constructions and to solve problems.

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