Title

Scaffolding Young Children's Play

Author

Sarah Pierce, Concordia University, St. Paul

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Non Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Education

Program

Early Childhood Education

Capstone Instructor

Nedra Robinson

Second Reader

Sue Starks

Keywords

play-based education

Abstract

Play is vital to the development of all children. Successful play experiences are directly associated with a child's future school-readiness, academic achievements, and social interactions. Although play may be expressed differently by each child, it serves a central purpose of providing motivation, challenge, and discovery in the life of a child. Each mode of play and social aspect of play is important and flourishes throughout a child's young life and into adulthood. This project presents a tool to use in order to assess the present play experiences of a child. It also produces a scaffolding tool for teachers and caregivers of young children, especially those with special needs, to recognize their role in play. The emphasis of the tools is on the acceptance and appreciation all children's vision of the world expressed through their play. Three case studies are offered as examples for use of the tools using the specific play interventions of peer integration and play scripts.

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