WEEK 3-Research that Benefits Children and Families

When I look back at what made me have a change of focus in the field of education, it was an experience that brought about a conviction that truly I could contribute to this field and that learning with children had a strong association with play. Looking back at the moment that brought about a turning point in my passion as a professional is a short story of a young girl, who was brought from the village; she had been staying with her uneducated grandmother in the northern part of Nigeria, she could not express herself in any other language than Hausa which was their native language and she had very little knowledge. Her father was well educated man but was away for a while so had to put the child with the grandmother, and when he came back he realized the girl was of school age, he was afraid she would be able to cope. There, I came to the picture, someone recommended me to the father that since I was a teacher .although my area of training was for much older children, but I was ready to challenge myself. How then do prepare this young child for school, then I tried to visualize myself as a child, and how I was able to learn more when I was playing, so I thought, of adopting that method, even though I was not trained or well prepared for the task ,within couple of months this little girl was expressing certain words in English and eager to learn new things, to her it was fun, singing ,rhyming and puzzle, meanwhile she was learning and she was a fast one at it. She was enrolled to school, sooner than expected. Then, I began to see the reality of how play could help children develop and learn.

This belief has influence me a lot as regards how children learn and so with this in mind I always thought of researching on play and its significant impact on children. I wanted to understand better how to articulate it as an educator for it to yield favorable result .social skill are very essential for young children’s survival and learning. Social skills teach them to relate positively with others and also be able to express their needs, wants, desires appropriately. Based on these important acquiring early is essential. Play gives room or create avenue for interaction, through interaction, children learn to take turns, follow rules, masters skill, compliments others, share things, show concern, listening, compromising, cooperation, asking questions amongst others. These skills enables them relate better with people, thereby make them learn better

In other words I believe that my research on play as promoting early social skill would bring about change in attitude towards play ;correcting the notion of it being a waste of time, bring about better understanding of how it supports learning and development, better public awareness of the need to promote play in curriculum, generate ideas on how to articulate the impact of play in the classroom by teachers and finally get more awareness for provisions ,more rich and safe play environment for kids.