RUNNING HEAD: Personal Philosophy 1

Pacific Oaks College

HD 311 Play Across Lifespan

Fall 2017- Chiquita Waters

Personal Philosophy

Rebeca De Leon
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Personal Philosophy

My personal Philosophy about Play across the lifespan narrows down to play during

childhood and education. In taking this class, I was able to observe, research and learned from

different age groups and their play but what I was really drawn to was play and how this is not

only a huge but important role in a childs problem-solving skills and social and emotional

development. Form the many theorist discussed in class such as Erik Erikson, Piaget, Grader

amongst others, and my own personal observations with kids, adolescent and adults and play, I

was able to gather my personal philosophy. On this paper I will sharing some of the

documentations, readings and quotes that made my personal philosophy enriched. Before giving

my personal philosophy on what the value of play means to me I wanted to do a bit of more

research on what the world and others have to say on this topic, and I found the following:

According to an article play is a vital tool for growth and child development yet, there is less

emphasis placed on encouraging children to play. According to this study, current study

investigated parental beliefs on play. The sample consisted of 34 middle-class couples (34

mothers, 34 fathers) co-parenting a preschool-aged child (3-5 years) attending the laboratory

school of a large mid-Atlantic university. Participants were surveyed about their beliefs on play.

Results revealed mothers value of play to be higher than fathers. Although significantly

different, both mothers and fathers perceived play positively. The findings suggest that early

childhood professionals need to further advocate the importance of quality play and its ties with

academic achievement to all parents, especially those from lower socioeconomic

(Devito,2014). Play should be the heart of contemporary early childhood pedagogy, and it should

lead to a strong belief in the importance of an emergent, child-centered approach to a curriculum.

When working at a child center I do strongly believe a huge part of the day should be dedicated
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to play, dramatic play, associative play, which is when children share and coordinate materials

and space in proximity to one another but lack true cooperation. And cooperative play which

involves sophisticated efforts to negotiate joint play themes and constructions with peers and is

characterized by children stepping into and out of their play to establish roles or events (Barbara,

2015). Over all, in play, the perspectives on childrens and adults play examine how childrens

ideas could expand the dialogue on the changing sociocultural context of play. I believe that as

educators and adults who engage with children and their play we should be considerate to each

child. Not all children have access to familiar play accessories. Some children become naturally

engage in more solitary play or parallel play as a way of meeting their own needs. As educators

and advocates for children it is essential to be aware and understand ones own thought

processes. Each and everyone of us process things differently and not every child at a classroom

or child care is or has been exposed to play. When children begin to spontaneously invent

strategies and discuss and negotiate rules before game begins, games with rules become an

appropriate addition to the school curriculum. Play is essential and a primary tool for young

childrens social, emotional, cognitive and physical development.

Childrens emotional development refers to their capacity to feel or experience a wide

range of emotions, emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, jealousy, excitement, wonder, and

fear. I personally was able to see this for myself when doing the play observations, I did for this

course. Emotional development allows children to be involved in their capacity to manage and

regulate their emotions and expressions. That is why almost all the theorist like Piaget,

Vygotsky, and Erikson who believed this, wrote about the importance of play in emotional

development. We all know that good parenting behaviors during adolescence continue to have

lasting effects on children, even when they enter young adulthood. Advising parents and family
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members about the importance of play in early childhood education is important for me as an

individual. Many people dont know how much the simple act of play can help children and

adolescent in the young adulthood years. However, life is not perfect and there are times where

children who should be playing and doing kids stuff dont and instead do experience things such

as trauma, which for children is processed differently than adults. Which leads me to my next

point in the importance of play, therapy play. Children experience and process trauma

differently to adults; difficult experiences (and the feelings that go with them) may become

stuck in their minds, or be locked away from conscious awareness. Yet, these feelings are not

gone, even if they are not evident to the child; they typically manifest as behavioral problems.

We all know that it is difficult for children to verbalize their wants, needs, feelings and

emotions. When children tend to have problems, they are often criticized to be acting out when

automatically their behavior changes and become anxious and unusually withdrawn, this also

depends on what age group we are dealing with. This behavior in young children is often ignore

with the hope that the childs behavior will eventually ware of or the hope that the child will

grow out of it, as the other parents become reactive. Realistically speaking, for parents who

become reactive, it is only because they worry that their childs behavior will grow worse over

time, which is why they seek help in a form of therapy for their trouble child. An article about

play therapy states that, Children generally lack the ability to immediately talk through

traumatic experiences; instead, they must start at the base level of simply making sense of them.

Only by doing so can these experiences by assimilate into conscious awareness, into what the

child already knows of the world. That is called the act of processing an experience, and will

result in the healthy expression of thoughts and feelings as the child comes to a new

understanding of the experience. Behavior subsequently changes for the better, as the feelings
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are being expressed via a different channel. Play allows children to have access to a safe way to

express their pain, to exorcise the problem behaviors using toys and come to grips with what

happened to them in a non- threating environment where they will not feel judge. Play helps

children and adolescent in adulthood because it provides an environment where they can express

their feeling and emotions through play, this allows children and adolescence to express feelings

and not repress their feelings and emotions, and that is what helps the child in their young adult

years, it allows an adult to find what helps them vent in stressful situations by helping them

verbally express themselves. This technique allows them to avoid poor mental and emotional

health later in adulthood. With that said, I believe that it is important for educators, advocates for

children and parents to facilitate children and adolescent to becoming healthier in behavior,

which also results in there being more mental energy left over for creative activities and problem

solving, that leads them to mastering tasks more easily and growing more confident, which is

what we ultimately want for children, the future of tomorrow. This lead me to the research

question, How, and in what ways can I help individuals, families, communities and society

support play across the life span?.

From personal experience, I can say that many family members and communities do not

have access to resources that help children be involved in extracurricular activities outside of a

classroom setting, such as: play, sports, etc. That is the reason why I am very passionate about

advocating for children and educating parents about local resources and tools that helps their

children enhance and success not only academically and socially, emotionally and

developmentally as a child. This help and engagement in this area as a child helps them

throughout adulthood. During my research on Play across the lifespan I learned how important

play is in general. I used to think that play was only for children until I experienced play, from
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hide and go seek to board games. Aside from participating on games the last half an hour class of

my play across the lifespan course, I started engaging a lot more and focusing on play with my

children at work, I would get down and sit criss cross applesauce with these preschoolers and

build ships, buildings and cars with Legos which enhanced not only my imagination as an adult

that I am now, but it helped me be part of their development process. With this said, Play has

become a part of me now, I bought myself a set of playdough and I have been using that as a

source of therapy now as an adult. Playing board games with my friends and classmates has

allowed me to recreate a part of my childhood and adolescence I never had. Why was I not

involved in play and extracurricular activities such as, sports, games, tournaments? I would as

myself at one point in my life, until I realized it was something out of my control. My mother,

being a single mother, was a very busy woman trying to work two jobs to sustain my brother and

me. It wasnt her fault and I dont blame her for that. But it does make me sad the lack of support

my mother, brother and I, as a low-income family had from school educators and counselors.

Now, as an adult and current student of Human Development emphasis on Early Childhood

Education I am very passionate about changing that in our systems and communities. I have

learned so much about play across the lifespan, but I am drawn more towards children and play

and how I can help in any way children and communities of low income families make this

accessible in a simple and non-expensive matter.

To finalize my personal philosophy on play across the lifespan, learning and participating

in play as an adult has change my life, I have concluded that helping individuals, families, and

society support play across the lifespan doesnt have to be a difficult thing to do, and it can be

just part of helping our community. Play and games in general bring families and people

together, during my research I read about this special day called, Day Of the Young Child. As I
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was reading about this event, I thought to myself, I wish I could have gone to an event like this

as a child, given that I was not involved in any kind of activities like such. On this day, educators

that have recognized the need for children to have access to books and social interactions, as well

as parents and advocates for children collaborate their effort to reinforce linking children to

language, reading books, and cultures by playing board games. This is an actual date and it is

celebrated by communities, and although Day of the Young Child, Childrens Day or Dia

de los ninos is marked to be celebrated it on April 30th, many communities chose to celebrate it

on different dates. The celebration is meant to be a community event and can be tailored to fit

local needs and calendars. Anybody can make a difference by just volunteering in our

community with the knowledge us as adults obtain to share with our children and help them

scaffold as they unfold their identity in a nurturing and safe environment.

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References

1) DeVito, M. C. (2014). Parents' value of play in early childhood: A comparative study of

spousal play beliefs (Order No. 1554825). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Global. (1528597095). Retrieved from https://tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-

proquest-com.tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/docview/1528597095?accountid=34120

2) Niland, Amanda.(2009). The Power of Musical Play: The Value of Play- Based, Child

Centered Curriculum in Early Childhood Music Education. Vol 23, (Issue 1), pp. 17-21.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1048371309335625

3) Alward, R. Keith. Hoorn, Judith Van. Nourot, Patricia Monighan. Scales, Barbara. (2015).

Play at the Center of the Curriculum. New Jersey: Pearson, Inc.

4) Gordon, M. S., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in

young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771.

doi:http://dx.doi.org.tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9887-y

5) Play and Cognitive Problem Solving. Chiquita Waters.