Abstract
Play is a voluntary, spontaneous, flexible, and pleasurable activity that is a child’s natural, automatic, and instinctive way of learning. There is something very significant about play in the lives of young children. Play is a vital part for healthy social, cognitive, creative, language, and emotional development in early childhood and should be a fundamental part of all young children’s lives. If you were to watch children at a playground you would observer a universal truth of children of all ages involved in play from an infant holding a toy, to a four-year-old playing dress up, and a seven-year-old playing hopscotch, children love engaging in self-motivated and structured play without adults interfering. Nevertheless, with increasing stress in or culture on developing academic skills in children at younger and younger ages, and the ever-growing influence of technology, children are spending less and less time discovering and enjoying the benefits of free play.
Year Manuscript Completed
Fall 2017
Senior Project Advisor
Greg Geirhart
Degree Awarded
Bachelor of Integrated Studies Degree
Field of Study
Educational Studies
Document Type
Thesis - Murray State Access only
Recommended Citation
oldham, hayley, "Early Childhood Education: Development Through Play" (2017). Integrated Studies. 105.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/bis437/105