EFFECTS OF PLAY AND DEMONSTRATION METHODS ON PRESCHOOL LITERACY SKILLS A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED NURSERY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN OVIA NORTH EAST LGA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Play and demonstration methods are the primary vehicle by which young children learn. For the preschool child (3-6 years old), demonstration methods is at the very centre of his life. The play experience of the young child serve as the primary vehicle by which he/she learns about himself and his environment. During the preschool years, young children greatly expand their knowledge, understanding and abilities. They explore and discover their world through experiences using their sense of touch, sight, smell, hearing, taste and the child’s discovery of the environment could be done through play. Play is a universal language which every child understands, it is seen as a positive tool for holistic development in young children. Children love to play and learn a lot through play. It is such a significant factor in children’s learning that the National Policy on Education 2004 categorically stated that government should ensure that the main method of teaching at the early childhood level should be through play. Play has been given different definitions by different authors.

Play is a perfect activity for normal development and growth of children in all aspects of life. It is especially useful in the all round development of the child in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of learning (Ibiam, 2010). According to Bedrova & Leong (2003) play is a specific behaviour involving divergent thinking usually used to describe the activities of children from babyhood until the early teenage years. They also argue that play is something in which humans of all ages, from diverse cultures engage in, although the purpose for and the type of play may be dierent across ages and culture. A commonly held belief among those in Early Childhood Education is that play is the most important activity of young children because it is during play that children are at their most competent form. Children learn best not when they are told but when they can act on their environment and construct knowledge for themselves. It gives children fun, joy and help in developing the child’s personality, realization of their potentials and to experience the satisfaction of success. Children have other forms of play such as hide and seek, art, running, climbing building and others but dramatic play provides distinctive, lasting benefits for total development of the child.

Dramatic play can be defined as a type of play where children accept assigned roles, and then act out. It can be seen as a term that refers to everyday make-believe games that kids naturally enjoy (Maureen, 2003). Dramatic play occurs when children adopt roles and use make believe transformations to act out stories. In dramatic play, children bring existing skills and act of dramatic play in turn enhances these existing skills. The skill-set that develops through dramatic play are role playing, use of materials, pretending, attention span, social skills and communication. Children say what they feel and feel what they say. They unashamedly use erroneous conceptions and unintentional puns. In play and demonstration experience, children integrate emotions, thinking and motivation to establish natural connections critical to effective brain functioning (Lester & Russell, 2008). When they engage in play, they use imagination and imitation which require complex cognitive or intellectual processes.

The understanding that they have built through play experience are symbolized by things, action plots and behaviors. Play and demonstration give children opportunities to explore, talk to each other and solve problems with the help and supervision of their teachers. Recent research on emergent literacy, has revealed that play and demonstration can make important contributions to children early reading and writing development. The development of cognitive skills, including dispositions for learning, (such as curiosity and persistence) memory and thinking skills and language and literacy skills have strong links to play (Bedrova & Leong, 2003). They also agree that play and demonstration is an integral part of a well rounded preschool programme as it is healthy for early childhood development. Play can help the educator of young children meet the co-curricular goals and build the children developing literacy skills. It allows children to experiment with purpose for literacy things they have seen at home, to recognize that dierent tasks require texts to produce a wide variety of texts and by demonstrating things they have heard for them.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Play and demonstration method helps the children learn to assert themselves in a way to build their competence in later adult roles. The ability to experiment with demonstrations, problem solving and conflict resolution while promoting abstract thinking, helps the child’s ability to develop, thereby contributing greatly to the holistic development of young children. Demonstration has some educational purposes/ values. It fosters creativity of thoughts, imagination, strategies for problems solving and the development of divergent thinking ability. Some of the key components of holistic development including characteristic of how children demonstrate each area. These areas of growth are interrelated and independent. Growth in one area reinforces and promotes growth in the other areas.