Research That Benefits Children and Families

I used naeyc.org for my resource this week.  I found an article from Dr. Alison Gopnik, who has been doing research on young children for 20 years.  I remember Dr. Gopnik from video resources from my first few classes here at Walden.  The article focuses on ways Dr. Gopnik has seen children benefit from play. She has confirmed through her research that children learn through exploring and playing.  This study extremely important for young children and the people who care for them.  With the state of education and the increasing academic demands on our young children, it is studies like this that will help educators fight to keep play in their classroom.  

"Children are eventually going to learn to recognize letters. But learning how people work and what’s in others’ minds is a much deeper and more profound learning. Ironically, parents who think they are helping their children by exposing them to flash cards with letters on them are doing less to help their children than parents who expose their children to pretend play, read to them, and talk with them" (Gopnik, 2009).  This is my favorite quote from the article and one that I feel I will referencing in my research.


http://www.naeyc.org/files/tyc/file/TYC_V3N2_Gopnik.pdf

My Personal Research Journey

The topic related to the early childhood field that I would like to know more about is the benefit of play in the early childhood classroom.  I have broken this topic down into three related subtopics:  1. play and brain development, 2. play and social development, 3. the teacher’s role in classroom play.  The reason I chose this topic is because of what I see happening in my school and my classroom every day. 

This is my eleventh year of teaching and I am sad to say that I have seen play slowly worked out of the school day.  I taught first grade for 8 years and this is my third year teaching kindergarten.  Many of the things I am teaching in kindergarten currently were part of my first grade curriculum years ago.  I also have many students who have never been in a school setting before coming to my classroom and do not have the opportunity to play with other children their age in their neighborhoods.  The only time they have any interaction with their peers is the two and a half hours they are in my room.  I also have students who are learning English as a second language.  The only time they get to practice English in a risk free setting is when they are talking to their peers during play time.  Unfortunately the increasing difficulty of the standards does not leave much time for free play, or so my administrators and district leaders think.

If anyone has resources or personal experiences that would help me in my research journey, I would greatly appreciate it.  If I find any helpful information, I will be sure to pass it on.  I am looking forward to learning with all of you!