Early childhood development

Need help responding to this with this discussion starting with I agree. Responses must be one hundred fifty words 

discussion board 1

Play in early childhood development is important because it helps physically and cognitively. Gross and motor skills in early childhood development get better and better because of play. Play helps get kids to exercise and reduces the chance of becoming obsessed. Children who pretend play “helps them solidify new cognitive schemes they were developing.” (Paris, Ricardo, & Raymond 185) “Play, then, reflects changes in their conceptions or thoughts. However, children also learn as they play and experiment. (Paris, Ricardo, & Rymond 185).

Citation

Paris, Jennifer, Ricardo, Antoinette, & Rymond, Antoinette. Child Growth and Development. Version 1.2., College of the Canyons, 2019.

discussion board 2

Play is such a fundamental part of the early childhood experience. Through play children learn to make sense of the world. According to Piaget, children are very much involved in pretending during this preoperational stage of development.  He believed that children’s play helped them to synthesize new schemata that helped them to develop cognitively and that this play, based on pretend and experimentation, applied new ways of thinking about old ideas (Child Growth & Development, p. 185).  Play helps children understand the world that they live in.  Children need to experiment, manipulate, problem solve, and interact with the world around them so they can make decisions for themselves that are essential to understanding how the world works.  Play provides these opportunities for children to actively engage with their environment and in doing so, come to understand how the world works as well as their place in it.

Both Piaget and Vygotsky both believed that children need to be active participants in their learning. Not only is play important for cognitive growth, but it is a very important aspect of physical and social growth as well. Piaget believed that children go through stages of growth and development that presented opportunities and experiences. The child would then apply prior knowledge to these new experiences and develop new schema in such a way that cognitive equilibrium would be achieved, and new knowledge acquired (Child Growth & Development, p. 187). Vygotsky took a more social approach to learning. He believed that children learn from adults and older peers and felt that a child would not reach his full potential without these interactions (Child Growth & Development, p. 188). He believed that children should be taught tasks that are just slightly more challenging than they can accomplish independently with the help of a skilled teacher. His idea of the Zone of Proximal Development is seen today in teaching methods using scaffolding or supports that help the child to stretch his thinking and acquire new learning (Child Growth & Development, p188). According to Vygotsky, play allows children to model the actions of adults so they can begin to understand the world better and their role within that world (El’Konin, p. 13).