Advocating a Play-based Curriculum to Parents
By Gayle Justynski

Over the past 20 years, an enormous amount of research on the effectiveness of children’s play on their cognitive development has been completed. However, many classroom teachers still buckle to the pressure of incorporating “classroom academics” into their early childhood programs. By “classroom academics” we refer to such activities as worksheets, flashcards, skill and drill, rote learning, etc. Oftentimes this pressure comes from two different sources. The first are administrators of programs who may not have an early childhood background; the second, and perhaps even more powerful, are the parents of the children in the programs.

All one has to do is eavesdrop on the conversations at drop off and pickup times at most early childhood programs, and you are sure to hear parents questioning teachers about when their children are going to start learning letters and numbers. Many parents would like their children to be reading before entering kindergarten. Most parents ask their children what they did in preschool or child care when picking them up at the end of the day. The majority of parents are uncomfortable hearing the phrase, “I just played today.” Perhaps this is because as educators we are not communicating well enough to parents that when children “just play” they are being prepared for future academic success.

Our first line of defense as supporters of developmentally appropriate practice is to not buckle to the pressure of introducing "classroom academics" into the early childhood setting. It is important that we are also educating parents about what we do and why we do it. A valuable step in this process is to have strong, open communication lines with parents, as well as an active parent group. Encourage your parents to come and spend time in the classroom to observe all that happens in the course of a day. Consider taking some slide photos of a typical day, and then present it at a parents’ night. Once your parents witness the meaningful learning that happens in the course of their child’s day, it will be easier for them to accept a play-based, developmentally appropriate curriculum.

When teachers communicate to parents and others, we must not use vague phrases such as “play is a child’s work,” or “ children learn best through play.” In my experience, these phrases do not give opponents to play-based curriculum enough information about all that is happening on a daily basis to ensure that children are getting all they need to be successful. For example, a child who chooses to go to the easel may be learning about cause and effect when he mixes colors, a skill she will need for science class. Children who help clean up by matching pictures or outlines to objects on shelves are practicing their math skills. In the dramatic play center, children are encouraged to think abstractly and to understand that words are representative of ideas, a pre-reading skill. At the sand and water table, children continually consider the properties of mass and volume without ever realizing it!

Learning is a creative and active process for children—the role of the teacher is to provide the appropriate material and setting. Children must play. It is part of their being, and it is how they assimilate and accommodate new information, so why fight the natural rhythms of childhood?

Vygotsky and Piaget gave us the theory to support our view that mastery is achieved one small step at a time, and that children will develop and learn at different rates. Play permits the child to decide the size of the steps to take. Howard Gardner from Harvard University wrote
extensively about how children as well as adults learn in many different ways. Play-based programs allow for these differences and enable children to choose the level of skill and challenge with which they feel comfortable and set the stage for how they learn best.

Recently, an Early Childhood Task Force made up of practitioners representing early care and education programs, Head Start, the public schools, family child care home programs, higher education, and parents, came together to form the Rhode Island Early Learning Standards. These Standards were written for four-year-old children ready to enter kindergarten. The group of professionals who came together for this project had diverse backgrounds with a variety of experience and expertise. However, one of the issues that everyone serving on the
project felt very committed to was that the role of play should be paramount. This is clearly evident in the final document: play is listed as the first Learning Goal in each of the eight domains of children's learning. (For a complete copy of the RI Early Learning Standards, log onto the RI Department of Education web site at www.ridoe.net, click on “Support for Children and Families,” then “Early Childhood,” and then on “Early Childhood Standards.”)

The best part about a play-based curriculum for children is that it is fun, and therefore is intrinsically motivating and rewarding for them. It puts the power to learn in their hands, a skill we all need throughout life.