Written to support early years professionals who are fascinated by the complexities and implications of early development, this fully updated second edition explains why children need to play and offers practical guidance on how best to support children’s development and learning through play. Based on a wealth of research in the field, this accessible and engaging book explores why children behave as they do at different ages and stages in their development and shows how play can complement and enhance their social, emotional, perceptual, motor and intellectual development. The author shows how detailed observations of children at play can lead to providing the most appropriate learning opportunities for children with different aptitudes and abilities. Topics discussed include: the learning potential within different play activities; how emotional intelligence and children’s self-esteem contribute to overall development; supporting children that find it difficult to play; gender bias; the nature versus nurture debate; using observations to ensure appropriate play experiences; ideas and strategies for carrying out small-scale research. With suggestions for practitioner activities, and for action research questions that can be used for continuing professional development, this text is ideal for practitioners and students wanting to fully understand how play can enhance children’s overall development.

Product Description: Does gender, sex and sexuality influence children's play, and their learning? Can/should professionals try to influence children's gender and sexual concepts? Can/should professionals try to prevent gender stereotyping? These and other questions are explored in a lively and thought-provoking text that looks at why and how children inhabit or develop their gender and sexuality...read more

Product Description: WINNER of the 2016 Academic's Choice Smart Book Awards; Creative Child Magazine's 2016 Book of the Year! When young children are engaged in imaginative play, they are not just having fun; they are developing skills and concepts that are foundational to their learning...read more

Product Description: Play is an essential, necessary, and natural human activity. . .and it's for adults and companies, too. Play is an immersive process that allows us to ask “What if?” to break free of the strictures that limit creativity and satisfaction...read more

In Play and Creativity in Art Teaching, esteemed art educator George Szekely draws on his two classic volumes, Encouraging Creativity in Art Lessons and From Play to Art, to create a new book for new times. The central premise is that art teachers are not only a source of knowledge about art but also a catalyst for creating conditions that encourage students to use their own ideas for making art. By observing children at play and using props and situations familiar to them, teachers can build on children’s energy and self-initiated discoveries to inspire school art that comes from the child’s imagination. The foundation of this teaching approach is the belief that the essential goal of art teaching is to inspire children to behave like artists, that art comes from within themselves and not from the art teacher. Play and Creativity in Art Teaching offers plans for the study of children’s play and for discovering creative art teaching as a way to bring play into the art room. While it does not offer a teaching formula or a single set of techniques to be followed, it demystifies art and shows how teachers can help children find art in familiar and ordinary places, accessible to everyone. This book also speaks to parents and the important roles they can play in supporting school art programs and nourishing the creativity of their children.

Product Description: Recent studies have shown that children in today’s world spend more than three hours daily in front of the TV. Educators suggest that this habit causes obesity and apathy in children. What can we do?Instead of Watching TV offers kids alternatives to TV or videogames...read more

Product Description: Creative Play the Steiner Waldorf Way is the ideal book for modern parents who want their children to develop their creativity and imagination through play. This book teaches you how to let your child develop according to the Steiner theory, which helps children to fulfill themselves naturally and holistically in mind, body and spirit...read more

The importance of play in children’s health and care services, both as a form of therapy and as a distraction, is often overlooked. This unique text promotes developmentally appropriate provision within healthcare settings for children and young people and provides an introduction to the underpinning knowledge and skills. Covering core content – such as the role of play in child development, relevant anatomy and physiology, the concept of resilience, health promotion, developing appropriate provision and working in diverse healthcare settings – each chapter: makes links with the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework and the Children’s Workforce’s Common Core of Skills and Knowledge begins with an overview of the chapter objectives contains a variety of activities such as reflective exercises, case studies and practical tasks that will promote both skills and knowledge needed in the workplace. concludes with a selection of additional useful resources and further reading suggestions. Designed for all healthcare professionals who work with children and young people, including those studying to become health play specialists and children’s nurses, this text provides practical examples of how all members of the multidisciplinary team can help to support children’s play.

Product Description: This book takes on current perspectives on children’s relationships to literacy, media, childhood, markets and transtionalism in converging global worlds. It introduces the idea of multi-sited imaginaries to explain how children’s media and literacy performances shape and are shaped by shared visions of communities that we collectively imagine, including play, media, gender, family, school, or cultural worlds...read more