{"id":59334,"date":"2021-09-14T04:53:39","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T08:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=59334"},"modified":"2021-09-14T04:53:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T08:53:39","slug":"how-addressing-our-young-kids-covid-19-learning-loss-is-a-matter-of-childs-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-addressing-our-young-kids-covid-19-learning-loss-is-a-matter-of-childs-play\/","title":{"rendered":"How addressing our young kids\u2019 COVID-19 learning loss is a matter of child\u2019s play"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nCOVID-19 disruptions have had a distinct, devastating and potentially enduring impact on our youngest school-aged learners,\u00a0especially those who were already behind in early language, literacy and numeracy understandings<\/a>. The pandemic has also taken a toll on\u00a0children\u2019s social and emotional health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Data from Alberta suggest many children have lost\u00a0a year or more in expected progress<\/a>. There is no question of the urgent need for educational attention that will mitigate COVID-19 learning loss.<\/p>\n

Suggestions put forth to help children have included\u00a0lengthening the school day<\/a>, focusing on\u00a0phonics instruction for early reading<\/a>,\u00a0intensive tutoring<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0having children repeat grades<\/a>\u00a0to ensure better beginnings and readiness for literacy and numeracy development.<\/p>\n

But imposing narrow academic expectations may not align\u00a0with children\u2019s readiness to learn, and may produce only short-term learning outcomes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Guided play \u2014\u00a0play that is guided<\/a>\u00a0by teachers at school \u2014 can be an important part of children\u2019s learning, especially for children who are entering kindergarten up to about Grade 3. Parents or caregivers could consider ways to adapt such guided play in the home.<\/p>\n

Guided, purposeful play<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Guided or purposeful play<\/a>\u00a0is play that reflects a sense of learning intent.<\/p>\n

Guided play in the classroom could look like teachers being on hand to explicitly direct children\u2019s gaze to a key idea and explain patterns or sequences when they are manipulating shapes or objects like blocks or a bucket of buttons. Buttons become tools for learning through sorting or categorizing by shape, color and size. Buttons are wonderful for making sequences and patterns \u2014 and learning how to quickly recognize: \u201cHow many?\u201d Shape and pattern represent the underpinnings for letter recognition, spelling and numeracy understandings.<\/p>\n

It could mean encouraging a child to hold their pencil or paint brush\u00a0to develop a pincer grip<\/a>. Kids need to develop a good pincer grip and achieve fine motor control for printing, cutting, folding and pasting.<\/p>\n

Five areas of child development<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A growing body of research finds\u00a0that both free imaginative play and guided, purposeful play are associated with stronger early language, literacy and numeracy outcomes<\/a>, and social and emotional health benefits. Children gain these benefits as they learn the give-and-take of play\u00a0with others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These five related key areas (or domains) of child development should be targeted through play: numeracy and spatial recognition; fine motor skills; language and word knowledge; cognitive skills and memory; social and emotional learning. Of these, perhaps the\u00a0fine-motor-language nexus is the most critical<\/a>.
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The domains of early development can be targeted through forms of guided play. Hetty Roessingh, Author provided<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Learning through such play\u00a0develops embodied cognition<\/a>\u00a0and the foundations for literacy and numeracy understandings.<\/p>\n

Practising with loose parts<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In classrooms, once underlying concepts and skills are taught, children can extend and practice these through centre or station play where child choice, imagination and creativity direct and drive activities like tinkering, taking apart structures and\u00a0playing with loose parts<\/a>. Blocks, puzzles and everyday objects like clothes pegs, tweezers, measuring devices, scissors, pencils and crayons are all\u00a0part of the teacher\u2019s play toolbox<\/a>\u00a0in the early years\u2019 classroom.<\/p>\n

With some flexibility, these strategies can be adjusted for children in kindergarten up to Grade 2. They can be transferred and extended to imaginative activities like post office (recognizing names and numbers) or grocery store (reading labels and lists) or dress-up and socio-dramatic play.<\/p>\n

There will always be a range of children\u2019s readiness for learning. Especially in COVID-19 recovery, teachers will need to adapt and accommodate, and be smart at planning games and play activities through an assessment lens, and planning the instructional cycle accordingly.<\/p>\n

Importance of dialogic talk<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Talking with children is also critical when they are involved in guided play as a way of helping them to develop their language and world knowledge.<\/p>\n

Adults can strategically introduce more words relevant to academic learning (\u201cacademic words\u201d) when children are involved in guided play: For example, words like \u201cconstruct\u201d or \u201cstructure\u201d versus \u201cbuild\u201d when playing with blocks. The words can be accompanied by a definition, a synonym and paraphrasing by saying: \u201cIn other words \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Other times, adult talk needs to be more explicit and direct when children are involved in guided play. Some examples could be explaining a learning or memory strategy while playing a card game or dealing with numeracy concepts when playing a linear board game. What researchers\u00a0call \u201cmath talk,\u201d and understanding of the rules of the game matters in transitioning to more independent play and practice<\/a>\u00a0with their peers.
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