By Jennifer Winters, Executive Director
“School readiness” has received significant attention recently, with states, schools, educators, and parents striving to prepare children for the transition to formal education. Too often, however, the term is narrowly defined to refer to academic skills, leading many schools and parents to intensify their focus on formal reading and basic mathematics. As a result, play and its developmental benefits are sometimes relegated to the background. At Bing Nursery School, we don’t use an either/or approach. A program that offers young children high-quality play experiences with skilled teachers will lay the foundation for readiness for school and beyond. This is at the core of Bing’s mission and guiding principles.
With that in mind, let’s look at a morning in one of Bing’s nursery classrooms.
The dramatic play housekeeping area of the classroom is bustling with activity daily, and the morning of Feb. 2 was no exception. On this morning, however, it was alive with children pretending to be doctors, EMTs, and patients in need of care—each of whom appeared to have significant medical experience, particularly in emergency medicine.
“I need to call the hospital,” rose a voice above the chatter of others. “Who knows the number? I think it is 255!” Off went a “doctor” talking into the phone, hands cupped around the speaker to relay a vital message about his sick patient. At one point, the children who assumed patient roles were lying in rows in the block area. The little doctors stood, crouched, and knelt over them, examining and dictating important information to their colleagues. There were serious illnesses, broken arms, and some very rare conditions. Holding a clipboard that somehow morphed from a list of injured children into a scan from an X-ray, a doctor announced that a patient lying before him had an inside-out lung that needed to be untwisted. That prompted lots of tapping and examining of the patient. The activity continued for the better part of an hour until snack time interrupted the rhythm of play.
Teachers kept a watchful eye on hospital “staff” and occasionally asked questions: “It looks like Tilda has a lot of medicine; is that making her feel better?” A child replied that he had to call the hospital to check. The play continued, as patients lay on the carpet surrounded by a band of doctors pretending to administer medicine represented by pieces of pink and blue paper. Make-believe shots were administered with blue pieces of string connected to various found materials. One patient drew particular concern: She lay very still with her eyes closed, and they agreed that, indeed, she was dead. As the doctors and other patients gathered around her, a child said, “Bring on the magic!” Others joined in with the chant, and the patient opened her eyes. Cheers erupted across the room.
Young children play to make sense of their world. Real doctors in white coats holding stethoscopes and sharp instruments can be frightening to many, and exciting to others, so acting out roles collectively helps children process what they know about the subject. But how does that help with the readiness they will need as they transition to kindergarten? Believe it or not, the skills children gain by participating in this type of dramatic play are precisely what they need for their next stage of life.
Children’s ability to engage in dramatic play—and play in general—allows them to grow and develop in the following ways:
• They think more deeply about the world• They express ideas and feelings• They work together to solve a real or imagined problem• They develop language and literacy skills• They gain empathy and compassion • They learn how to read social cues • They learn to self-regulate • They boost creativity • They nurture their imagination • They improve their executive functioning
Why is executive function so crucial for young children?
According to Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, executive function refers to a set of mental skills that underpin our capacity to plan, prioritize, meet goals, display self-regulatory behaviors, follow multiple-step directions (even when interrupted), stay focused despite distractions, adapt to new and unexpected situations, and, ultimately, engage in abstract thinking and planning.
Interestingly, while we are born with the genes that provide a blueprint for learning these skills, they are best developed through real-life experiences and practice. An upset infant learns to settle when soothed by a preferred caregiver—this is the beginning of emotional control. Something as simple as playing peek-a-boo or patty-cake helps to build the neural pathways of working memory and self-control. Early in an infant’s life, caregivers set up the framework for practicing these skills, and they can encourage games that promote imagination, role-playing, following rules, and controlling impulses.
According to the Harvard Center on the Developing Child, children who develop executive function skills early are more likely to show self-control as they age and transition to more structured learning environments. Neuroscience research shows these skills develop most rapidly in the preschool years (3–5 years). That is when children learn to negotiate, compromise, stand up for themselves, and build independence and problem-solving skills.
The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child emphasizes that executive function is fundamental for school readiness, calling it the “common denominator” for learning and social interactions. These skills, or “neurological connections,” are formed during the preschool and kindergarten years and develop best through real-world, physical play. Academic knowledge is essential, but children also need strong executive function skills to focus, remember, and plan effectively for school success. And play is essential to developing these skills.
Returning to our emergency room scenario, the children quickly negotiated roles, came up with multiple solutions to problems that arose, communicated fluidly in an ever-changing situation, listened to and followed directions, and used classroom materials creatively as their tools and instruments. This type of play is highly beneficial for developing the executive function skills necessary for future academic learning.
Play also helps children build the confidence and resiliency they will need to face future challenges. Learning to work together, share, negotiate, and move through conflict, children are learning necessary skills for kindergarten and beyond. In child-directed play, children move at their own pace; they make decisions and rules independently and with others. They can explore, discover, and pursue interests. This is foundational to how their attitudes toward learning are formed.
Early education scholar Dale Farran proposed an iceberg model of learning to suggest that the most significant portion lies beneath the surface (invisible)—much like a house, the underlying foundation must be strong to support the rest of the structure. Farran uses that model to demonstrate that children’s underlying skills like curiosity, attentiveness, self-control, drive to learn, and memory are crucial for building concrete skills such as learning letters, sounds, and numbers—the school readiness in early education.
To most effectively serve young children and ensure that they thrive, school readiness must be approached and implemented from a perspective that values and includes the many developmental benefits of play, along with a gentle on-ramp to the ABCs and 123s.
Young children have a natural curiosity about the world around them. They are innate explorers of their environment and are born wanting to communicate and to socialize. All of these fundamental instincts are best nurtured through play. We must encourage, not reduce or restrict that drive. It is our job as their caretakers and as educators to view school readiness through a lens that includes play and its full range of developmental benefits.
Please see my earlier column for more on how play enhances school readiness: https://bit.ly/play-and-school-readiness.
Fire boat to the rescue
“I’m driving the fire boat to a fire on a dinosaur island,” a child exclaimed as he sat atop the driver’s seat of his boat built with hollow blocks. He stocked the shelves with essential supplies such as binoculars and food items.
What did the child gain from engaging in this play? It supported his planning skills as he developed a series of steps for reaching and fighting the fire. He drove there in the fire boat, used tools to scope out the situation, and then brought out the fire hose. He also drew upon his problem-solving skills, imagining challenges to reaching the fire and figuring out ways to overcome them. What’s more, block play provided opportunities to learn about math skills like spatial relations, equivalencies, patterns, proportionalities, as well as science concepts of mass, weight, and balance. The child’s creativity and excitement sparked other children’s curiosity, and he invited them to join in and collaborate.
—By Elena Haase Cox, Teacher