Children Learning and Symbolic Play

Children acquire and emblematical gipAbstractOur understanding of s pull inrren breeding and cultivation is complicated because of the legion(predicate) and varied factors that impact it. These include physio lucid, affable, wound up, societal, linguistic, cognitive, socio-cognitive, and cultural aspects. Two of the most great theories on the growth and growth of cognitive thinking in boorren were proposed by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Both offered explanations for minorrens cognitive discipline styles and abilities their explanations and ideas have signifi bedtly contributed to the line of business of accomplishment and instructions. While they have contrastive views into the cognitive exploitation in infantren, Piaget and Vygotsky both forceful that much of childrens betimes checkering is achieved through and through bit and emblematic exploit in particular. The fair gameive of this paper is to try the study constructs of Piaget and Vygotsky theo ries slightlywhat cogitative breeding in children and to evaluate the implications of their theories for instructions and exemplary lend practices for children in preschool (kindergarten) age.Cognitive Development Theories Children Learning and emblematical foregatherCognitive breeding refers to the development of the ability to think and reason. It is the transformation of the childs un variousiated, generalised cognitive abilities into the freehandeds conceptual competence and worry- puzzle out skills (Driscoll, 2005). For me very(prenominal)(prenominal) psychologists, cognitive development answers the questions most how children dies toward reaching the endpoint of gaining the adults skills, what pointednesss they ar go past through and how do trades in their thinking occur and what intention dose reading make up?Among many theories that are introduced to inform the children cognitive and experience development, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky proposed the mo st powerful theories that contributes to this component of psychology. Their theories underlined that the substance the children learn and ment altogethery grow has a minute parting in their nurture progress and abilities development. Piaget and Vygotsky were considered as constructivists who believed that learning occurs as a result of mental construction and by kick the bucketting the smart information into the cognitive structure (scheme) that the learners already have (Driscoll, 2005). Constructivism commence besides suggests that learning is affected by the context in which knowledge transport occurs and by learners beliefs and attitudes . Piaget and Vygotsky excessively concur on the societal influences in cognitive growth however, they differ in the learning progression attend to. Piaget believed that children learn by interacting with their milieu but with no enormousness for the input from opposites and that learning occurs by and by development Vygotsky, on the other hand, held the idea that learning happens before development and that children learn through autobiography and symbolism and they value the input from their surroundings (Slavin, 2003).Further, it is imperative for larners to understand the progression of cognitive development and the constructs of the major theories in the field in order to be able to attend the rum postulate of each child and to develop the learning program, instructions plans and schoolroom activities in a developmentally appropriate draw near. Kindergarten program is an typeface of these learning programs that is of particular interest because it influences children in very young age and shapes their cognitive development journey. Kindergarten learning programs should be designed on the natural approach for children learning as suggested by the cognitive development theories. The natural approach suggests that the somatogenetic, socio-emotional and cognitive development of children depends on act and inter operations with others (Driscoll, 2005). This means the exploit is a key aspect of the Kindergarten learning programs and that is seen as phenomenon of thoughts and activity growth (Piaget, 1951).Play consists of activities performed for self-amusement that have doingsal, well-disposed, and psychomotor rewards. Play is directed towards the child, and the rewards come along from within the several(prenominal) child it is make happyable and spontaneous. Children engage in assorted types of breeze depending upon agencys and different needs. Types of tend range from physical picnic which involves jumping, running and other physical activities to the surrogate romp at which ill children watch others play on their behalf. They in like manner range from inactive observation play to active associative in group play that requires planning and co operation. Play types also include expressive play which involves playing with materials ( such as clay, play dough,) and the artful play that gives children the measure of control over others and their surround (for example, to throw a toy out of a cot, watch a rise fill it up, and accordingly throw it out again). Symbolic play (also be referred to as dramatic play) is another meaning(a) type of play at which children order scenes where they substitute one object for another (for example, a child go a counsel use a stick to control a spoon or a hair brush to range a microphone). This kind of affect play takes on various forms The child may pretend to play using an object to represent other objects, playing without any objects and guise that they are indeed present. Or the child may pretend to be someone else and imitate adults and experiment what it means to be an adult in a grapheme they are exposed to in their surrounding environment (for example, mother, father, care-giver, doctor and so on). They may also pretend through other inanimate objects (e.g. a toy horse kicks another to y horse). Symbolic play in children pot usually be observed during the setoff of the second year of life and it has been linked through the studies and experiments to the cognitive problem declaration skills, creative abilities, and emotional well-being.In the following sections of this paper, the major constructs and ideas proposed by Piaget and Vygotsky theories exit be examined in sexual congress to symbolical play for cognitive and knowledge development of children and the implications of each guess for instruction and practice in Kindergarten educational settings.Theories of Cognitive Development Piaget and VygotskyIt is a fact that most of the methods and approaches for teaching are driven from Piaget and Vygotsky research studies. They both offer teachers favourable proposals on how to teach authoritative learning materials in appropriate approach that matches the child developmentally conditions.Piaget (1896-1980) believed that children progress through an invariant sequence of four sets. Theses degrees are not arbitrary but are assumed to reflect soft differences in children cognitive abilities (Driscoll, 2005, p.149). He proposed that each stage moldiness represent a epochal qualitative and quantitative change in children cognitive and that children progress through these stages in a culturally invariant sequence. distributively stage will include the cognitive structures and abilities (schemes) of the previous stages (constructivism) which all will act as an integrated cognitive structure (accumulated knowledge) at that given up stage (Driscoll, 2005).These schemes can be alerted, changed or developed through enculturation and accommodation. Assimilation occurs when a child perceives new objects or events in line of existing scheme (Driscoll, 2005) in other record books, within information the child already knows. Accommodation occurs when existing schemes are modified to adopt (or turn back in) a new experience or information. If the new information doesnt fit or it conflicts with the existing scheme then the disequilibrium occurs. Equilibrium, however, is the grasp developmental make which encompasses both assimilation and accommodation and prepares for the child transaction from one convey of the development to the nigh (Driscoll, 2005). Piaget stages of development are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations and glob operations.Sensorimotor stage is over the period amongst the birth to twain historic period. During this stage, the child experiences the surrounding knowledge domain through the senses and promptment. The child develops object permanence which refers to the ability to understand an object exist even if it is not in field of vision (Woolfolk, 2004). Toward the end of this period, children draw to mentally represent object and events but to that point they just can act and during the transaction to the mental representation, they may use simple motor indicators as symbol s for other events (Driscoll, 2005). They also mystify to understand that their actions could cause another actions developing a goal-director expression for an example, throwing a toy from the cot to make parents pick the toy and insistence the doll button to make the sound and so on (kind of the manipulative play).Preoperational stage extends from the child second year to seventh year. agree to Piaget, children have not nevertheless mastered the ability of mental operation or to think through the actions (Woolfolk, 2004) but they acquire the semiotic function early in this period. This means that they are able to mentally represent the objects and events, as evidenced in their imitation of some activities long after it occurred (Driscoll, 2005). Hence, pretending, or symbolic play, is highly singularity stage and the language scholarships. iodin more interesting idea proposed by Piaget is that during this stage children are considered to be self-absorbed assuming that oth ers share their points of view and which makes them engage in self monologue with no interacting with others (Woolfolk, 2004).Concrete operations period that is from seventh year to eleventh, is characteristic to be the hands-on period at which children overcome the limitation of self-centeredness and learn through discovery learning while working (operating) with actual tangible objects (Woolfolk, 2004). They become more internalized and able to bring to pass logical-mathematical knowledge resulting in operations (Driscoll, 2005).Formal operation occurs from eleventh year to adulthood and at which propositional logic is developed. Reaching this stage, children (who become adult) should be able to not only to think hypothetically but to plan systematic approaches to solve problems (Driscoll, 2005). The acquisition of the met-cognitive (thinking about thinking) is also an crucial characteristic of the formal operations.Piaget also believed in the active role of the child during development. He proposed that children act on their avouch environment and cognitive is rooted in the action (Driscoll, 2005). He acknowledge the brotherly interaction aspect of the children development but only to move the child away from self-seeking to develop the well-disposed knowledge that can be learned only from other people (language, moral rules, values..).Although, Piaget supposition of cognitive development proposed an integrated and beneficial framework for children learning that can be utilized by educators and parents to influence and enrich the learning process of the children the theory has faced serious challenges and especially in the recent years with the contemporary research add to this filed. For an example, Piaget believed that all children, regardless of the culture, progress through four stages and once particular stage is reached, the regression to earlier stage cant occur. Replications of Piagets experiments have shown that children in different cul tures do not pass through the same types of reasoning suggested in Piaget stages (Driscoll, 2005). Moreover, there are people, in any culture, who fail to reason at the formal operation take aim we experience interacting with these people in our day-to-day life in ain and professional levels. Also, Piaget claimed that there must be a qualitative discontinues change in cognitive from stage to stage this has been questioned with the ability to accelerate development and the studies and experiments showed that that children can learn more than Piaget thought they could (Siegler Svetina 2002 as cited in Driscoll, 2005). One more is that children dont exhibit the characteristics of each stage for example, children are sometimes self-absorbed beyond the proportional stage and the preoperational children are not egoistical all the time (Driscoll, 2005).However and in spite of these challenges, understanding Piagets proposed stages and development sequence suggests usable and effecti ve certain learning and teaching strategies at each level. physical exercise of these strategies as implications of Piaget theory will be discussed in the next section.Vygotsky (1896 -1943) proposed an pick to the Piaget stages of cognitive development, he stated that children learn mainly by social interactions and their culture plays a major role to shape their cognitive (woolfolk, 2004). He believed that individual development could not be understood without reference to the social and cultural context within which such development is embedded (Driscoll, 2005, p.250). His theory suggests a co -constructed process of social interactions at which through children move toward individualized thinking. When a child receives a serve up through this process, her or she may be able to develop cleanse strategy in the future to deal with a similar problem. This co-constructed channel of communications between the child and his culture will lead to internalization and eventually to sel f-employed person thinking (Woolfolk, 2004). A good example to understand social converse and internalization is what introduced by Vygotsky himself and cited in Driscoll (2005) One a child stretching out her hand for an object she cant quite reach, an adult interprets the motility of pointing and responds accordingly. Until the adult responds, the child is simply grasping for an object out of reach, however, the situation change with the adult respond to be a social change and the act of grasping takes on a shared meaning of pointing. When a child internalizes the meaning and uses the gesture as pointing, the interpersonal activity has been transferred into intrapersonal one. (p.252).The district of proximate development is another principle introduced by Vygotsky. He concur with Piaget that there is knowledge and skills associated with the child developmentally range of understanding, but he believed that with given serving and endorse, children can perform problems that Piaget would consider out of their present mental capabilities (Woolfolk, 2004). hold up is the technique proposed by Vygotsky to give birth the discovery learning through social interaction and in the zone of approximate development. Scaffolding entails providing the child with a hint or clue for the problem solving and encouraging childs thinking in order to allow him or her to better approach the problem in the future.Further, Vygotsky highlighted the importance of the mediation cultural tools to support learning and higher-level processing in children. These cultural signs and tools involve technological, symbolic and any available resource that aids in social communication (language, signs, symbols, media television, computer, books). Although the tools at hand may include sophisticated toys, children are successful at creating imaginary situations with sticks and other general objects in their environment. This leads into the symbolic play as a strategy for children teach ing. Driscoll (2005) noted that in play, Vygotsky argued, children stretch their conceptual abilities and begin to develop a capacity for purloin thought the signs they establish in their imaginations, in other word, can make up a very complex symbol system, which they communicate through verbal and nonverbal gestures(P.259).The development of language is another major principle that is proposed by Vygotsky s theory. Althoug didnt come up to specific implications for instruction of language, he believed that language constitutes the most meaning(a) sign-using behavior to occur during the cognitive development and this is because it frees children from the constraints of their immediate environment. The language of a certain group of people reflects their own cultural beliefs and value system and children ab initio associate the words meaning to their contexts and life aspects till they learn to abstract the word from a particular concrete context (decontextualization). This proc ess of decontextualization must occur with any symbol system if it is to serve higher mental functions such as reasoning (Driscoll, 2005, p. 259-260). Once again, Vygotsky suggested that symbolic play is important for language learning in young children. He also emphasized the importance of the private speech as a self-directed statute and communication with the self to guide actions and aid in thinking this is in contrast to Piaget who viewed privative speech as egocentric (or immature) (Woolfolk, 2004).Undoubtedly, both Piaget and Vygotsky provided educators with influential insights and important views on the cognitive development in children. Piaget suggested that the children progress through maturation stages and discovery learning with minimal social impact. Vygotsky, from other hand, emphasize the importance of the cultural context and language on cognitive development. The following will browse, in general, some implications of the both theories for instructions in differ ent educational settings then more specific for symbolic play in kindergarten.Implications for instructions of Piaget and VygotskyEducators and school systems have been applying the cognitive development theories of Piaget and Vygotsky in classrooms teaching for some time. The most important implications of the both theories are that the learning environment should support the discovery-learning and that child should be effectively involved in the learning process. They stressed the role of comrade interaction and the symbolic play. Both also agreed that development may be triggered by cognitive conflict this entails adopting instructional strategies that make children aware of conflicts and inconsistencies in their thinking (Driscoll, 2005). A good example of this would be the Socratic Dialogs which fosters the critical thinking through a serial of questions and answers that enable learner to develop the understanding of the learning materials.However, Piaget and Vygotsky differ in the way to guide the children in the discovery learning. Piaget recommended a very dwarfish teacher interference while Vygotsky prompted the teacher to guide the discovery learning offering questions to students and having them discover the answer by judgeing different options (Scaffolding).According to Piaget, teachers dealing with children in preoperational stage (like in kindergarten) are raised to incorporate the play as a pedagogic strategy in play children are engaged in active self-discovery activities employing concrete object or symbolically. It also helps to understand that and since the children in this stage have not yet mastered the mental operations, the teacher should not only use action and verbal short instructions but also to demonstrate these instructions. use visual aid is very important in this stage to create attractive and discovery-oriented learning environment (Driscoll, 2005). Moreover, is to pay attention to the egocentrism in this stage as suggest ed by Piaget and the teacher to be sensitive that children may not realize that not everyone shares their view or understand the word they invented (Woolfolk, 2004). It is important to in the stage to provide the children with a range of experiences and knowledge to build the foundation (basic scheme) for concept learning and languages those children are expected to master in coming stages. Teaching children in the concrete operation stage should involve hands-on learning at which children have the opportunity to test and manipulate objects, perform experiments and solve problems in order to develop logical and analogical thinking skills. Teacher should consider using familiar examples to explain the complex ideas and this is by linking to the existing knowledge of the learners (scheme). While teaching the students in formal operations stage requires teachers to offer student open-ended projects that conjure their advanced problem solving and reasoning skills. It is critical in thi s stage for the teachers to help learners understanding of the broad concepts and their applications in the real life.The teachers applying Vygotsky teaching methods would be very active player in their students education. The most popular technique to be utilized is the scaffolding at which teachers will provide help and the feedback as the knowledge source to support learning of new information. The teachers then will not present information in one sided way but will provide the guidance and assistance required for learners to couplet the gap between their skills level and the desired skills when they are able to effected tasks on their own, the guidance and support will be withdrawn (Greenfield, 1984 cited in Driscoll 2005). Also teachers applying Vygotsky theory utilized the meditation tools and teach students how to use these tools in their learning (computers, books,). Vygotsky emphasized the language and other sign systems (such as symbolic playing) as important tools for c hildren learning. row is the cultural communication tool that transmits history and cultural values between individuals and from parents and teachers toward children.Most importantly, is incorporating the group or colleague learning as an important source of cognitive development. A good application of Vygotsky principles of social learning and the zone of approximate development zone is the strategy at which teachers encourage children with varying level of knowledge to help each other by allowing the child who master the skill to teach and guide his or her peer who still trying to master this skill. It is go along to be an effective learning strategy not only in children learning but also in adult learning. Piaget also believed that peer interactions are essential in helping children move beyond the egocentric and that children are more effective to provide information and feedback to other children about the validity of their logical constructions (Driscoll, 2005) hence the i nstructional strategies are favored that encourage peer teaching and social negotiation.Applying Piaget or Vygotsky, the teachers main goal should be to support learners and to provide the assistance plan that fulfill the learner needs and promote his thinking skills and cognitive development. Teachers should also prepare the learning environment that attracts children attention and encourages their self-discovery. The instruction plan should be designed on the exposit that classrooms have students with different cultural, linguistic and knowledge backgrounds. In preparing learning activities, teachers should be able to get children to play and learn collaboratively and enhance their understanding through teacher feedback, peer feedback and social negotiation.Symbolic Play Cognitive and Language DevelopmentAs introduced, the cognitive development theories encourage play and symbolic play-in particular- as a pedagogic strategy for active self learning and language development. In pl ay, the children initiate and take control of their activity (Driscoll, 2005) and this very nature of play along with other criteria are what distinguish play from other behaviors play is essentially motivated with self-imposed goals, play is activity of spontaneous and pleasure, play is free from imposed rules, player is an active participants in the play play focuses on means rather than ends, play is characteristics by the as if dimension that encourages children to use objects and gestures as if they were something else ( Hymans, 1991 Fein Rivikin as cited in Yan, Yuejuan Hongfen, 2005 Piaget, 1951 Rubin, Waston Jambor, 1978).In symbolic play that starts in second year of life, children use tools of objects, actions, language, signs and roles to represent something from their real or imagined world of experiences. It enables the children to build and express their understanding of all individual or social experience (Driscoll, 2005 Hymans, 1991 Lenningar, n.d Lyytinen, Poik keus Laakso, 1997 Piaget, 1951 Woolfolk, 2004). Symbolic play indicates that the child developed the two main cognitive operations reversibility and decentalisation reversibility refers to the child awareness that he or she can come from the pretended role to the real world at any time while decentralization refers to the child understanding that the child in the play is still him/her at the same time with the person he/she is imitating (Rubin 1980 as cited in Marjanovic Lesnic, 2001). The next intellectual skill noticeable in the symbolic play is conservation which refers to the child ability to preserve the imaginary identity of the play materials despite the fact they are perceptually and could be functionally inadequate (Marjanovic Umek Lesnic Musek, 2001).The social element of the symbolic play is also a very important aspect to be considered for the cognitive development in the children. According to Vygotsky, children learn to use the tools and skills they practice with social parents he also emphasized that learning occurs in social interactions and it is affected cultural context it occurs at. He however proposed that social interaction could lead to developmental delays or abnormal development as well as to normal or accelerated development (Driscoll, 2005). Piaget also highlighted the importance of social interaction for the children to develop beyond the egocentrism that is a characteristic of pre operational stage. The impact of symbolic play in this dimension is back up by Smilansky (1968) studies at which she proposed that social activities influence the development of the childs cognitive and social skills. When children are engaged in a role performance they have to reach a agreement about the play idea, the course of actions and the transformation of roles and play materials and this can only be achieved when individuals come over their egocentrism and develop the ability to communicate and empathize (cited in Marjanovic Umek Lesnic M usek, 2001). Smilansky then developed the Scale for Evaluation of outstanding and Socio-Dramatic Play the home tracks the progressive development in the use of the objects in the symbolic play over five stages. The first stage includes simple manipulation followed by the stage of imitating the adults activities of adults by using the model of the object as adult do (as using the hair brush as a microphone). In the third stage, the object becomes an instrument for enacting certain roles while in the off stage the use of object/toy goes together with the speech and gestures. The final examination stage focuses in the speech without using objects or gestures (Smilansky 1968 Smilansky Shefatya, 1990 as cited in Marjanovic Umek Lesnic Musek, 2001).Smilansky scale supported also the role of symbolic play in the language development that was firstly proposed by Vygotsky and this language-play relation has been investigated all the way since then. The research studies discussed the com ponent of the language in the context of symbolic play and mainly in the role playing part of it. In role playing, children engage in a communication dialogue with their playing parties. It is distinct that the role playing and object transformations enable the childe to use lexicographic meanings and clear speech (Pellegrini Galda as cited in Marjanovic Umek Lesnic Musek, 2001). According to Lyytinen, Poikkeus and Lassko (1997) their study to observe and examine the relationship between language and play among 110 18-month-old children showed that early talkers of these children displayed significant more symbolic play than the late talkers a significant alliance was found between the language comprehensive and percentage of symbolic play. This is supported by the study conducted by Marjanovic Umek and Lesnic Musek (2001) at which they compared three age groups of children in preschool settings with different level of play using Smilanskys Scale for the Evaluation of Dramatic and Socio-dramatic Play the observations and results proved stronger use of the language in the function of formation roles, scenes and materials that are required for the play context.More interesting studies looked into the implications of symbolic play for the education of children with special needs and disorders such as Down syndrome and Autism. ideal of these studies is the study conducted Stanley and Kinstantareas (2006) who investigated the relationship between symbolic play and other domains such as nonverbal cognitive abilities, receptive language, expressive language and social development among 131 children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The result indicates a significant positive relation between symbolic play and development of these domains in children with (ASD). The study also stressed that training in symbolic play will help to improve these children skills in other domains (Stanley Kinstantareas , 2006). Another recent study conducted by Venuti, Falco, Giusti and Bronstein (2008) to investigate the impact of mother-child interaction in the play on the cogitative functions of children with Down Syndrome concluded that such interaction leads to enhanced cognitive run (Venuti, Falco, Giusti Bronstein , 2008).Symbolic play, then, inked through the literature to the development of cognitive problem solving skills, linguistic transformation and creative abilities. It also supports the emotional and social development. agency playing is evident to be a way of coping with emotional conflict through which children can escape into a fantasy world in order to make sense out of the real one. From different aspect, it enhances the child self awareness and self directed when a parent or sibling plays a board game with a child, shares a bike ride, plays baseball, or reads a story, the child learns self-importance. The childs self -esteem gets a boost. Parents channel positive messages to their child when they communicate pleasure in providing him or her with periodic care. From these early interactions, children develop a vision of the world and gain a sense of their place in it. In term of social development, the children enjoy playful interactions with others staring with parents through which they learn their culture values and aspects. fundamental interaction with other children helps the children helps children to learn about boundaries, taking turns, teamwork, and competition. Children also learn to hash out with different personalities and the feelings associated with winning and losing. They learn to share, wait, and be kind.Some of the more common functions of play are to facilitate physical and moral development. Physical play develops both fine and gross motor skills. During play, children repeat certain body movements purely for pleasure, and these movements develop body muscles and control. Moreover, when children engage in play with their peers and families, they begin to learn the acceptable a nd unacceptable behaviors. During playing with peers, they learn that taking turns is reward and cheating is not they learn to appreciate teamwork, share and respect others feelings.Therefore, models of children learning and preschool education in professional settings are mainly driven from different understanding and implications of symbolic play which are in turn base on the premises of different cognitive development theories.Play and Learning Educational Framework in Kindergarten SettingsChildren learn through play is the chromatic rule that any educational frameworks in the preschool (Kindergarten) settings should revolve around. According to the theories and studies