Bookedited by Marilyn Charles and Jill Bellinson.
Summary: The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Education presents various theories of play and demonstrates how it serves communicative, developmental, and relational functions, highlighting the importance and development of the capacity to play in terms useful to early childhood educators. The book explicitly links trauma, development, and interventions in the early childhood classroom specifically for teachers of young children, offering accessible information that can help teachers better understand the meanings of children's expressive acts. Contributors from education, psychoanalysis, and developmental psychology explore techniques of play, how cultural influences affect how children play, the effect of trauma on play, factors that interfere with the ability to play, and how to apply these ideas in the classroom. They also discuss the relevance of ideas about playfulness for teachers and other professionals. The Imprtance of Play in Early Childhood Education will be of great interest to teachers, psychoanalysts, and psychotherapists as well as play therapists and developmental psychologists.
Contents:
Theories of play
Child development through play / Stephanie Creekpaum
Pretend play in the classroom : helping children grow / Sandra W. Russ & Alexis W. Lee
Understanding play
Play as communication / Brenda Lovegrove Lepisto
From reaction to reflection : mentalizating in early childhood education / Norka Malberg
Play in the classroom
Play in the emotional and cognitive life of a preschooler / Steve Tuber
Being a playful teacher / Peter Blake
Mine! no, mine!! interaction in children's play / Jill Bellinson
Techniques of play
Art-making experiences for young children affected by traumatic experiences / Ann-Marie Mott
Young children's musicality : relating with rhythm / Sophie Alcock
Promoting identity development through memory narratives / Elaine Reese and Tia Neha
Specialized needs for play
Trauma and identity / Marilyn Charles
Working with difficult and hard to understand children / Ionas Sapountzis
Culture and play
Creating reflective space in the classroom / Ana Archangelo and Fabio Camargo Bandera Villela
Cultural issues in relation to play for teachers / Athena Drewes
Culture and play as key elements of identity formation and academic performance for children of color in primary education / Kirkland C. Vaughans and Renee Vaughans
Teachers and play
Engaging children in healing work / Michael O¿Loughlin
Teacher stress : impact, challenges, and solutions / Deborah Mugno and Jennifer Reid
Afterword / Jill Bellinson
Index.