The Role of Adult in Children's Play and Settings

In many research done by the pioneers, play has been proven as an important criteria in children's different developmental area such as, social emotional, cognitive and language.
Whereby, what are the adults role in children play and setting?

First of all, in children's play, adult should act as an facilitator instead of director.
According to Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development in child, with the scaffolding of adult, children can reach to their potential level of development.

Secondly, adult as a supervisor during children's play, supervise children's play as an onlooker.
As safety is always adults concern during children's play no matter for indoor play or outdoor play,
so to keep children under supervision is also the legal requirement.

Third, adult as an observer to observe children's learning through play. As adult observe, they can analyse the observation and use it to plan and improve on children's play setting.

On the other hand, as to minimise the disruption during the children's play,
adults' role in planning the setting before hand for children has to put into consideration.

According to Piaget's stages of development,

• children at the age of 0-2, is in their sensory-motor stage, whereby involve children's learning through the 5 senses.
• Children at the age of 2-7, they are in the pre-operational stage whereby children is developing the ability to combine schemas, which are the ideas established by a child through interaction with the environment.

So, adults should be able to plan settings according to children's needs.

 For indoor,

• allow free play time
• provides multi-sensory apparatus or toys on the mat or table setting
• prepare different theme play box like restaurant, school, and clinic to allow for role play
• create private area for children to have quiet reading time or private talk with friends

For outdoor,

• allow for outdoor natural play
• pre-set outdoor play rules with children
• pre-check the play equipments and make sure it is safe to play
• prepare open-ended play activities like sand pit, water play, and painting.
• gardening area for children to observe their plants

As a conclusion,
we, as an adult, should make sure the safety of the environment for children to explore but do not make the environment risk or challenge free for children. As children explore, they might be being preserve or hurt themselves, but through every experiences they get, they are able to grow to be who they are.