Birth to three matters - Communities and Local Government

a fast-moving sce n e. When the process ofp l ay is ri c h ,it can lead children into cre at i n grich prod u cts in their sto ri e s, p a i nt i n g s,d a n ce s, music maki n g, d raw i n g s, s c u l p t u re sand co n s t ru ct i o n s, or in the solving ofs c i e ntific and mat h e m at i cal pro b l e m s.’Some learning in young children occursthrough imitation.They will try to do whattheir carer does, sometimes after a timelapse, which indicates how memory isassisting that learning, but usually that‘imitation’ is actually a re-construction –the child’s own version of what s/he hasobserved and noted, constructed andtransformed – in just the same way apainter like Picasso would transformexperiences, ideas, feelings andperceptions into a work of art. Bruce (2001)provides a detailed overview of learningthrough play in the years before six,commenting that during the toddler yearschildren begin to rehearse roles, pretendand create play props, as their ability toimagine accelerates rapidly, along withlanguage and play with symbols.Meanings are made, not mere ly dispatc h e dand co n s u m e d, as Meek arg u e s,‘The most strenuous period of imaginativeactivity is that time in childhood when weplay with the boundaries of our view ofthe world:sense and nonsense, the realand the fictive, the actual and the possible,all within the cultural domain we inhabit.’(Meek 1985: 53)Observing children when they play infamiliar surroundings is not onlyenjoyable, it is essential, because it isduring play that children are relaxedenough to ‘perform’ in ways whichdemonstrate the amazing extent of whatthey know and can do (see Lindon 2001).BEING CREATIVERobinson, and others, claim that‘creativity is in crisis’ (Robinson 2001: 195)as instruction and information givingand gathering overwhelm the timeavailable for nurturing and valuingdifferent intelligences and ways of beingand belonging.And yet the curi o s i ty of ve ry yo u n gc h i l d ren and their ability to take risks ind i s cove ry, p rovide a firm basis on whichc re at i v i ty can be deve l o pe d. By about eightm o nths of age, when children can movere a s o n a b ly indepe n d e nt ly, away from thefamiliar landsca pes of the adult faces whoe nte rtain and co m m u n i cate with them,c h i l d ren will range around their homel a n d s ca pe, seek out and ex p l o re object sco n s t a nt ly. Anything reachable can bet u rned into a play t h i n g. Ma ny pare nts arefamiliar with the idea that, in this, t h ec h i l d’s re s e a rc h ,p l a ces such as ki tc h e nc u p bo a rds be come play sites (Pi e rce 2000).Such ex p l o ration satisfies curi o s i ty but it isalso helping the child develop pe rce p t u a land spatial awa re n e s s. Ag a i n ,the re s t ri cte da b i l i ty to move and to ex p l o re of their ow na c co rd, ex pe ri e n ced by children withce re b ral palsy or those not motivated tom ove, l i ke some children with Dow n’ss y n d ro m e, means that these children willnot develop pe rceptual and spat i a lawa reness as effe ct i ve ly as other childre n .93