The Significance of Play for Cognitive, Physical, Emotional, and Social Well-being of Children

A Study On The Importance Of Play In The Learning Process Of Children With An Explanation Of Practitioners’ And Parents’ Attitudes Towards Children’S Play.

In the view point of McClintic and Petty (2015), child’s development can be very effectively be influenced by the teaching as well as the play. Children can in fact gain a higher level of understanding when the parents or the care givers understand the benefits of the learning through play. Considering the significance of play among the children, play essentially contributes to the cognitive, physical, emotional and social well-being of the children (Spiteri Cornish 2014). Despite understanding the importance of play among the children, it has been found that the time and the expenses made for the children to play have considerably reduced in the recent context (Bryan 2018). The various factors involved due to this can be considered as the increased hurried lifestyle of the parents, change in the way of living, and the increased attention given to the academic form of learning rather than involving the children in the play and learn process (DiCarlo et al. 2015). However, amidst of these instances, the importance of play can never be neglected and also the involvement of the parents in the play and learning process is another important part of the entire learning and developmental process (VanHoorn et al. 2014). In the current busy lifestyle that is led by all the parents, children are being raised in much hurry and under a constant pressured lifestyle where they are being asked to focus on the academic form of learning rather than focusing on the play and learn process. Reading Harms et al. (2014), it has been noted that even those children who are not dragged into the constant pressure of life to compete with others, they often have to pass through other huddle or instances in their life. For instance, poverty, war, migration and other things has become a clear scenario in today’s life that is hampering the play activities of the children.

In all these considered life situations, the role of the parents and the care givers in terms of teaching children by the means of play has become very pivotal. It is important that the parents and the practitioners have a clearer and positive perspective on the importance of play because every single child should have the opportunity to advocate such factors that actually helps in the development of the children and reaps the advantages of the play (Gehris et al. 2015). It is only when the parents and the practitioners follow the guidelines of play and learn, it can be expected that the children will be able to learn and grab things better. The aim of this study is to find out the explanation of the parents’ and practitioners’ attitude towards the children’s play. In order to support the relevancy of the parents’ attitude towards the children play, a detailed analysis of the role of the parents in the early childhood learning will be carried on supporting the outcome with the relevant ideas and information that actually helps the children to develop their learning process (Wood 2014). This topic under consideration is an important point of discussion for the Early Childhood practitioners and learners because the first step of learning comes from the parents at home and that the subsequent learning can be taught by the early childhood practitioners when the practitioners are given the responsibility of taking care of the learning and development of the children (Iten and Petko 2016).

Barriers to Play Activities

Research question:

How the parents’ and practitioners’ attitude towards play during the early childhood learning can help the children to learn in a better way in their early life?

The objectives of the study:

1. To find out the various factors that creates an impact on the learning and development of the children in their early life.
2. To examine the effectiveness of play as a means of learning and development among the children
3. To find out the role of parents and practitioners in the learning process by the means of play.
4. To recommend certain ways that can be adopted by the parents and practitioners in order to improve the learning of the children

Chapter 1: Play for early years children 

The Early Childhood Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the guidelines of the learning and development as well as the care of the children from the birth till 5 years of age (Sosa 2016). It is expected that all the primary schools and Ofsted registered early childhood years providers follows the Early Childhood Foundation Stage guideline including the teachers, nurseries and others who are responsible for reception of the children. As commented by McClintic and Petty (2015), EYFS framework actually supports the integrated approach of the early learning and care. Therefore, this standard sets a common principle and standard for those professionals who are responsible for giving a quality education and life to all the children in their early childhood. Apart from this, the EYPS framework also sets a guideline for the parents as well and in a way provides them the necessary confidence that it does not matter, wherever they chose to allow their children, they can be sure that their children receive the best care from the carers because they are following a particular guideline or principles underpinning the learning and development process of the children (Ernst 2014). The early childhood guidelines aim to ensure the providers to create a statutory framework in order to ensure that the children are given quality treatment and a consistency in their early childhood setting in order to ensure that the children are taken good care in the progress and that no child is left behind the care of the parents and the practitioners (Roskos 2017). In addition to this, the guideline also states that a practitioner should seek the opportunity of working in partnership. There always remain a scope of learning and development in every educational programme and so the practitioners and the carers should be responsible enough to guide the children and help them build a positive relationship enabling in the environment where the children are being raised (Ottley et al. 2015). The idea of these guidelines is to safeguard the children and also to create equality among the children and so that they can be raised in a comfortable zone that is full of love and happiness. This is how their early childhood can be shaped in a positive way and that the children will be able to learn better during the course of action (Lee et al. 2015).

EYFS Framework

The observation, assessment and the record keeping policy forms the overall and an integrated part of the overall policy in terms of delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. The aim of this policy is to assess the overall learning of the children by the means of observation and keeping record of the progress of each child (Stern 2017). This is a kind of holistic cycle that actually plans the curriculum of the children on what they should be learnt and taught. The process enables us to judge, observe or summarise the overall learning of the children by the means of observation and recording. It is by this way, one can actually give proper guidance to the children and can motivate them to build an interest and help them to progress in their life (Jung and Jin 2017). It is when, the children are differentiated based on their curriculum, needs and interests, there remains the full potential to value the achievements and in turn offer them new challenges to overcome (Iten and Petko 2016). The idea is to take a clear follow up of the needs of a child and to make sure that the current process of teaching and planning actually helps the child in the overall learning process (Mead 2017). The target of this learning is to increase the skills and knowledge of the children and encourage the children to become most self-reliant and self-sufficient that they can be able to carry out their life activities on their own (Nicolopoulou et al. 2015). Every single staff associated with the learning and the development process of the children is responsible for the course of action and to keep the records of the children. It is only on the basis of the observation, further course of action can actually be designed and the children’s learning journey can be focused further. In the view point of Winter and Hollingsworth (2015), the process of learning has to be carefully planned keeping the desired result into consideration. This planning should also match with the interest, new skills and challenges and also with the ability of engaging in the learning process (McClintic and Petty 2015). Thus, recording the child’s development alongside observing the same can be regarded as the effective means of the learning process.

The transition of the foundation stage of learning to the formal stage of learning holds a unique position in the overall learning and development of the children (Wohlwend 2015). The approach that is made towards this change holds the most importance in the life of the children. There might be many ways of approaching but it is expected that the professionals should follow a particular way in order to ensure that the children are consistent in their learning process and that they do not confuse the teaching and learning that is taught to them. It is considered that the real step of learning starts with reading, writing and most importantly with arithmetic (Berry et al. 2016). There are indeed various schemes that are available to support the learning process of children but it is only by the means of these three steps that the children are encouraged to learn and support their course of actions.

Observation and Assessment Policies

If the importance of play is taken into consideration, it has to be said that the early childhood educators also understands the importance of play among the children and they support the effective learning of the children through play. As commented by Sigel et al. (2014), play is a natural activity and it is very naturally adopted by the children at their early age. For every age group, there remains certain factor that actually shapes the ability of the children to realise the potential and strive to provide the quality activity. It is only by the means of play that the children would be able to reflect on the necessary components of the learning process in their early childhood learning (Gehris et al. 2015). Play not only gives a recreational support to the children but play also gives a theoretical support to the children as well. Play constantly helps in the learning and the growing of the children with the major experiences that they gain while playing (Aubrey and Dahl 2014). It has also been pointed out by Piaget that it is during the early childhood phase that while playing, children also put their hands on the manipulation as well. They tend to manipulate the objects and the environment of which they are a part (Moore 2017). This can be considered as the stage of their development and that they can easily and spontaneously make the desired changes in their lives. Thus, in a way, they can be self-directed and they can develop their own level of curiosity and desire in order to achieve the outcome of the desired result.

With the continuous development and engagement of the children in play, the ability of the children to foster and explore as well as getting engaged with the activities of every single thing that they do. This helps them to develop a sense of spontaneity and that they are being able to self-direct themselves in the learning process (Sampson 2017). Thus, the play activity actually fosters co-operation and to a great extend help them to explore the things around them (Berry et al. 2016). It is during this stage of the learning that the children should be given all the support and co-operation for the purpose of learning thinking that they would grab the best of the opportunities available in the surrounding where they live and belong (Roskos 2017). It is definitely a kind of active education that cannot be taught by using any books or in an enclosed classroom. All that is needed is the love and care along with the spontaneous support to the children so that they can easily grab the teachings and learning in the world they live.

Transition from the Foundation Stage of Learning to the Formal Stage of Learning

Safeguarding is the term used to promote and take action in order to promote the welfare of the children and also to promote them from any harm. The safeguarding include protecting the children from any kind of maltreatment, preventing the children from any health or developmental issue, ensuring that proper nourishment is given for safety and effective care. Safeguarding also means to take appropriate action in order to best serve the children in order to gain the best outcome from them (Daubert et al. 2018). It should also be noted that the provision of safeguarding children is applicable to all the children less than 18 years of age. Equality is the basic right that given to any particular individual in order to create a place in the society where each child will be able to live freely without the concern of any issues like gender biasness, rights for survival, protection, development or even participation of each individual in the society (Alexander et al. 2015). The aim is to remove any kind of insensitivity among the children and to make them available to work on each other’s need. For every parents and practitioners, kit is important to get the children readying for formal learning in KS1 because it the time when children are put into the real world of learning and formal teaching (Wasik and Jacobi-Vessels 2017). Prior to this stage, the children always remain in the state of mind that they can learn things by the means of play and activities and that every single thing actually resembles the environment or the surrounding where they live. However, the situation is not like that and that the children should have the sufficient ability to understand and take the formal education as well (McDonald 2018). This stage of transition is very challenging for the parents as well as the practitioners and that they have to spend quite a good time in order to resolve the issue and also to make the children capable of understanding and making facts clear to them.

Different types of play e.g. child led, adult led, benefits of outdoor play different perspectives of each play:

Child led play is to just let go the children and let them play the way they want to. It is the way of engrossing them in their own world and that they can interact and play with any other person with whom they want to interact (Lee et al. 2015). Adult led play is the structured and planned way of letting the children play in a safe and secured way where the children can be considered as safe because they remain under continuous guidance of their parents or adults. Free play is the creative activity that is focused on the spontaneous improvement of the children by teaching them using the materials like a book or any other toy or props (Lee et al. 2015). This is a unique way of making the children recognised of the things and also to introduce them with new and unique things. The dummy or the inanimate objects can help the children to recognise the things and resemble the same with the actual things available in the environment (Sandseter and Sando 2016). This stage is a great transition as it helps the children to recognise the things around them and that they could be rationale enough in their own way of thinking and dealing with the world. The types of play that children do can be both indoor and outdoor, depending on the play activity (Sandseter and Sando 2016). The indoor play is mainly involved on the activities of playing with the toys and other hampers inside the room or any other close boundary. This way the children are make ready to face the outside world and that they will be able to recognise each and everything that they come across outside (Lee et al. 2015). The outdoor play involves the activities when the children are actually let to go outside and asked to play with different things like a bat or ball or even when they are playing in park in a swing or a slide (Aubrey and Dahl 2014). The idea of the outdoor play activities is to make sure the children are able to grasp the activities of the outside world and that they can be easily become a part of the activities that happens outside. The idea is to make the children enable of understanding the outside situation and how they can actually cope-up with the things that they have to come across when they will be left outside to live their own lives (Iten and Petko 2016). This way they can also be able to understand the perspective of the nature and the outside world.

Attitudes of Parents and Practitioners

Chapter 2 Parents/carers attitudes to play (early years)

Parents have an important and significant role to play when it comes to preparing their children for the elementary or the kindergarten. Parents are essentially the first educators to a child and that they are the ones who provide their full support in the learning process of the children. Supporting children to play is a kind of informal education that the parents should provide in order to prepare the children for their next step. As commented by Spiteri Cornish (2014), parents who understand and recognise the importance of play will help their children to prepare, support and encourage their children in the play school or Montessori. Parents do display certain attitudes towards the play and learning activities. If the roles of both mother and father are taken into consideration, it has to be said that the fathers are not much engrossed in the play and the activities of the children but when it comes to their mothers, they are the ones who are most responsible for the learning and development of the children (McClintic and Petty 2015). In fact the educators who designs the learning process of the children, also believes in the fact that parental care towards the learning process is most important (DiCarlo et al. 2015). The main objective of the learning process is to gain insight and the perception of the children towards the learning and help the children to be accustomed with the regular activities.

Early childhood developmental theories:

The last three decades have shown us the right path and helped us to understand how a child’s development can be carried on. The theorists and educationists like Piaget, Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner have contributed largely in the field of the children’s education and have also given us guidelines on how to make children learn (Wasik and Jacobi-Vessels 2017). In the discussion of the early childhood education, the importance of play can never be neglected.

Cognitive theory:

According to the Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory, the way play and education were thought to be has completely changed. Emphasis has always been made on the process of playing and learning rather than only concentrating on the learning process. According to Piaget, development occurs in four stages that actually exist on a continuum. The four stages of the cognitive development include sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and lastly the formal operational (Alexander et al. 2015). All these stages focus on the different aspects of learning and cognition but ultimately, it aims at the development of the children and also to make them a step ahead when they shall be able to cope up with the general learning guidelines as well (Daubert et al. 2018). With each step moving forward, the cognitive and the developmental abilities of the children can be moulded or improved with their thought process. However, this step has to be undertaken in a thoughtful way that would match the cognitive and the developmental process of the children so that children would be able to the learning and that the process is not only considered as a means of play (Roskos 2017). During the preoperational stage, the children often come up with new skills and abilities and they are also being able to understand the limitations of their learning. As pointed out by Alexander et al. (2015), that every teacher has their own ability and way of teaching. Moreover, the way of teaching is also generalised and is at very few times when some extra effort is made towards a particular child to make the learning process easier. It might become very difficult for the children to understand the perspective of the teacher and considering the negative aspect of the same, it might happen that the actual learning is misinterpreted and the child did not learn the particular thing (Sampson 2017). However, the same confusion can be easily overcome if the parents or the personal carer of the particular child holds the responsibility of teaching the child. This will definitely help the children to understand the actual perspective of the learning and that they would be able to learn and understand the perspective more (Moore 2017).

Conclusion

Extending on the Piaget’s theory of learning through cognition or play, it can be said that in the preoperational or the first stage of cognition, the development occurs by the means of the language and representation (Gehris et al. 2015). In this stage, deferred imitation, drawing, mental imagery and most importantly symbolic play are the major means of teaching the children and developing their cognitive abilities. It has to be understood that when children learn through the direct interaction with the environment where they are growing up, the chances of the cognitive ability of the children increases (Nikken and Schols 2015). When the children are taught by using various objects and toys the ability of them to remember things increase. Thus, the learning process improves by the means of the play and learning and most importantly, the parents or the care givers are the ones who are directly involved in the process of learning (Sigel et al. 2014). Adding to the cognitive behaviour of the children, the stored information and concepts of the children can only be improved when they are given the opportunity to explore the environment and the surrounding where they are living (Berry et al. 2016). For example, a child can be taught about the animals and other important things by directly pointing out towards the particular animal. Like, the meow of cats, or barking of dogs and that animals walk on their 4 legs; all these can be taught by the means of cognition so that the opportunity of the children to remember things increases. Considering all these perspectives, it should also be kept under consideration that the development in a child does not take place at the same time when they are being taught on a particular thing (Wohlwend 2015). There seemed to have some consistency in the learning process and it takes time for the children to grasp all the learning and be consistent on their part.

Considering the perspective of the parents towards the learning process, it has been pointed out by Berry et al. (2016) that in the preoperational stage of the children’s learning, it is a common believe of the children that everything around them has lives and that they are living. This is when, each of them should be taught about the actual life activities and that they should be made aware of the actual things and they should be taught properly (Winter  and Hollingsworth 2015). Another instance that supports the perception of the parents can be discussed here. It has been found that parents often seen their children getting too much engrossed or involved with their softy toys and it has also been seen that the children have the perception that their soft toys actually eat and sleep and that the living toy can also be frightened of the dark (Nicolopoulou et al. 2015). This perception can only be changed when the children are given the right direction towards understanding the things. This can only be achieved when children are taught about these by the means of play and learning (Mead 2017). It is not only that the children consider that their stuffed animals are living and that they can be frightened or afraid, but it has also been observed that the children exhibit a kind of egocentric behaviour when they are being told that their soft toys are actually non-living and that they should not be engrossed in them (Jung and Jin 2015). These perceptions can only be changed only they are being educated at each and every step and that they are being helped to develop a rational thinking towards everything that they do or come across. Thus, the importance of teaching by the means of play can never be undermined and that the parents also hold the same attitude towards the learning process by the means of play.

Sociocultural theory:

According to the socio-cultural theory of Vygotsky, it is important for the educators to realise the importance of play and support any kind of learning and development that takes place by the means of play (Lee et al. 2015). It is believed that the social life of the children remains in their small world of play and learning and this is in fact the way of developing the cognitive behaviour and development of the children. With the increased interaction with the parents, elders and the world outside; also it is the first step of building individuality of the children for themselves (Alexander et al. 2015). It is the first time when the children are able to interpret the world they are living and they develop their interaction with the adults, peers, other children or any other person. Vygotsky showed his perception and stressed in assessing the abilities of the children by observing them during their play (Ottley et al. 2015). According to the concept of the zone of the proximal development, it is important to observe the children in their early age of development and maturity (Berry et al. 2016). Moreover, it is the responsibility of the parents or the care givers to make sure that the children are given proper direction of their education that would help them in the development of their skills and intelligence. During the early age, the only person who can help the children is the one who is nearer and closure to the children, they are no one but the parents and the care givers (Ernst 2014).

Taking into account the perspective or attitude of the parents towards the importance of play as a means of learning, it has to be said that parents have the perception that it is not only the knowledge available in the books that is important for the children to learn but there are other areas as well that needs to be checked and proper education has to be given (McClintic and Petty 2015). These other areas are nothing but the basic teachings that are given to the children in order to teach them about their own family rituals or manners or the basic teachings that are given to lead the social life (Sosa 2016). These teachings include the basic table manners, meeting gestures and behaving properly in the society. All these can only be taught when the children are given the basic education. The parents also believe that this education can only be given by the parents themselves (Wood 2014). Moreover, this type of education can only be given by the means of play and learn technique and can never be forced upon any particular child. It is the perception of the parents that finding the right opportunity and then teaching the children always remain in the hand of the parents because they are the ones who remain with the children all the time (Gehris et al. 2015).

Ecological theory:

The ecological theory is based on the Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory that focuses on the fact that the learning and development of an individual depends on the instances that is developed from the environment (Harms et al. 2014). In addition to this, it has to be understood that it is not the children who get influenced by the environment but the teacher also gets influenced. According to this theory, the impact of the play and learn on the children depends on the level of interaction between the children and the environment. The ecosystem has a lot of things to offer the children and teach them on very note of the structure of the society, culture or the law of the country (VanHoorn et al. 2014). It might not be possible for the children to understand each and every aspect of the society, but there always remain a chance that the children will be able to get a grasp of the regular activities carried on in the society (Bryan 2018). For instance, racism, discrimination and in fact economic distress are the significant areas where the children can be taught and that they can be given all the importance to teach them about the society where they live. It has to be understood that the macro system is formed by small entities and elements and that shapes the environment where we live (McClintic and Petty 2015). It is for the same reason, the children should be taught about these elements at the very early age so that they would be able to understand the changes with their growing age.

Chapter 3 Practitioners attitudes to play (early years) 

In the view point of DiCarlo et al. (2015), practitioners or the carers have a vital role to play when it comes to consider the importance of play in the lives of the children as a part of the learning process. It is believed that when it comes to the practitioners, it falls in their responsibility to take care of the children and thus any activity that is associated with any kind of risk can result in great trouble for the practitioners. In this context, Spiteri Cornish (2014) commented that when it comes to the play factor, there always remains a context of risk associated with it. These risks might be a small risk like a small injury while playing or running and it might also lead to a greater injury or accident that might result in very dangerous situation (Iten and Petko 2016). For instance, it might happen that the child eats or gobble something that choked his throat or it might also happen that the child suffer from a severe accident while playing like falling from a chair or table or even from a great height. However, in all these instances, it has to be understood that the practitioners are the ones who are responsible for taking care of the safety and security of the children and that they are answerable to whatever good or bad things happened with the children (Aubrey and Dahl 2014). The positive factors might influence the parents and encourage them to let them play with the toys or any other substances, but the negative aspects might result in great issues and the practitioners might be hold responsible for every activity (Sandseter and Sando 2016). This is the reason that there always remains a dilemma when it comes to consider the part of play among the children as a part of the learning process. In this respect, the view point of Lee et al. (2015) can also be considered that when it comes to the learning and development, there is always a risk benefit factor working in the entire process. The attitude of the practitioners should be positive enough towards the play that they would be able to teach the children along with play and not that they will always remain in a state of negative impact and hinders the growth and the enrichment of the knowledge and understanding of the children (McDonald 2018). It has to be kept in mind that there always remain and opportunity of development and learning from each and every activity that the children do and so play is essentially an important part of the entire learning process.

Practitioners have been found to hold the attitude of letting children choose what they wanted to play and less focused on the factors on what they should actually consider as a means of improving the capability of the children (Wasik and Jacobi-Vessels 2017). It has been observed that the children always tend to select the type of toys or any other playing material depending on the environment of the society where they have been raised. For example, in the war prone regions like Sudan, Syria; children are often raised amidst the regular chaos of the war and this is the reason that they are well known about the weapons like guns, bombs and other destructive materials (Daubert et al. 2018). Now, when it comes to the self-selection of those substances with which the children could play, they would definitely opt for those weapons even if they are toys. However, it can be easily understood from this perspective that the approach made by them is negative and this can definitely hamper their childhood as these toys can actually create a negative impact on the children (Roskos 2017). Thus, the role of the practitioners in helping the children to learn and play with toys or any other elements actually hampers and that can create a negative impact on the entire learning process (McClintic and Petty 2015). Rather than helping the children in the process of learning, it might happen that the children are dragged into a negative side of the learning process.

This particular study has been based on the secondary qualitative research. The existing literature has been used to carry out the detailed research and analysis on the importance of play in the learning process of the children. An explanation of the parents’ and the practitioners’ perspective towards the play of children in the early years has been the main focus of the study. The methodology that had been undertaken for this purpose can be stated as below:

Research strategy:

The detailed research on examining the perspectives of the parents and the practitioners’ attitude towards the learning process as a means of play has been carried out by using the Grounded theory. This theory states that it is the most effective and useful means of carrying out the detailed qualitative research on the existing literature. The data is collected and the same is used as a part of the analysis of the research. The main strategy of the grounded theory is too explicit the process of research and findings and then analysing the same (Mackey and Gass 2015). However, a chronological approach is generally taken while making an analysis. For this particular study as well, a chronological approach describing the sequences of the study. With an analytical view, the grounded research strategy has actually helped in gaining a better picture of the theoretical background of the study.

Research approach:

Identification of the exact sources of information and gathering the right resources from those sources is the research approach undertaken by a researcher while carrying out a particular study. The research approaches include inductive and deductive approach. In inductive approach, it is expected that the researcher would come up with findings from resources that are not only depended on the theories and concepts that have been analysed (Ledford and Gast 2018). On the other hand, the deductive approach is to undertake the research based on the data collected from the existing theories and models that have been used while carrying out the literature review. For this particular study as well, the deductive research approach has been used and the findings from the existing literature in terms of the models and the theories used have been utilised to get the findings.

Data collected method:

Identification of the right data from the huge data sources is important in order to move forward with the research. It is not only that gathering of the data is important but at the same time checking the reliability of the data sources is equally important in order to come up with relevant findings. The information or the resources that have been used for carrying out this research has been taken from various data bases. It was on the basis of certain criteria that the books, journals and other materials that have been used for writing the study have been used. Most importantly, the journals used were all peer reviewed, this helped to improve the quality of the research as those journals can be easily trusted because the content has been checked and rechecked by the scholars. Thus, there remains the opportunity of getting the right information about the particular study from these resources.

The systematic search over the database has been possible by the means of selecting right keywords. As the study was based on the perception of the parents and the practitioners on the importance of play in the learning process of the children in their early childhood, the keywords were based on related terms in order to gain as much result and findings as possible. The major keywords include, ‘role of play in the early childhood learning’, ‘role of parents in teaching their children via play’, ‘role of practitioners in teaching children by the means of play’, ‘parents’ attitude towards the play as a means of learning’ and related other keywords that have helped to gain a better understanding of the facts and the concerns that are related to the play as a means of learning process. All the information, journals and the books have been found from the various libraries and databases. Google scholar has been the most effective one and it has helped in getting all the desired information needed for writing the study. There were certainly some inclusion and exclusion criteria involved while carrying out the literature review of the study.

The inclusion and exclusion criteria can be mentioned as below:

1. The articles needed to match with the keywords used for getting information about the study
2. The articles were recent and that they were published after 2012
3. The articles had something related to the importance of play and its impact on the learning of the children
4. The articles were all peer reviewed and that the articles were also available in various renowned libraries
5. It has to be kept under consideration that the articles were meant only for the purpose of academic and learning and not for any kind of commercial or promotional purpose
6. In addition to this, the citations of each source were also available so that the same can be made while writing the research paper.

The literature review that has been carried on in this study has given the immense opportunity to understand the importance of play in the learning and growing years of the children. It has also been found that the perception of the parents and the practitioners towards the early childhood learning is also a key factor in the overall learning process of the children (Aubrey and Dahl 2014). It has been rightly found that that the parents are the first teachers of their children and they are the ones who taught the children on the culture, religion, environment and the societal happenings around them. Considering the attitude of the parents towards the learning process, it can be said that there are various factors that impacts the attitude of the parents and that at times they consider that they might fail to educate the children properly (Sandseter and Sando 2016). Moreover, they also believe and rely on the formal education that is given to the children in the preschools or schools and so they do not consider it to be their part of activity to teach the children properly. However, considering the learning theories of cognition, social behaviour theory and other that have been discussed in the study, it has to be understood that at each and every point of action, the children should be given the right direction of learning and understanding (Wasik and Jacobi-Vessels 2017). It is the parents who remain with the children all the time and they are the ones who understand their children. This is why their perception towards the learning while play should be positive enough so that they can teach their children all the necessary things in life before they receive the formal education.

Considering on the part of the perception of the practitioners towards the learning by the means of play, it has been observed that they are the ones whom the parents hire for the purpose of teaching their child or children. However, from the analysis and the detailed literature review carried on the topic, it has been found that at times the practitioners feel that they are not the legal parents and that they should be very concern about what they do or what they teach the children (Sampson 2017). In such cases there remains an obligation on the learning process and it might happen that the necessary things to be taught to the children are not taught at all. With a constant fear that the play activities might also result in certain other factors like accidents or the child might get hurt, there remains a dilemma in providing actual learning and teaching to the children by the means of play (Gehris et al. 2015). However, with the advancement in the teaching technique and the constant researches made on the benefits of teaching, the impact of the practitioners on the learning process has improved. It is expected that both the parents and the practitioners would be able to take the major opportunities of teaching children by the means of play and other activities.

Conclusions and recommendations:

A detailed analysis on the importance of play for the children in the early years of learning has been carried out in the study. In addition to this, the role of the parents as well as the practitioners have also been analysed along with their perception towards the play and activities that the children do as a part of the learning experiences. It has been clearly identified that in the early years of age, a child can learn a lot of things by the means of play. It is not only that a child can learn by the play activities inside the premise where they can be given some toys or other accessories to work or play with, but it should be remembered that the children’s knowledge can be increased when are given the opportunity of exploring more. Thus, it is equally important that the children should be given the opportunity playing outside and gaining as much knowledge as possible. In all the learning phase, the constant assistance of the parents and the practitioners is important because it has to be understood that the children are very new to the external world and that if they are not given the right guidance, they shall be directed to a wrong direction as well. Thus, constant support and teaching is the primary requisite for directing the children in the right way and teaching them as well. It has been also found that the parents and practitioners both carries a reluctant attitude when it comes to take the responsibility and teaching the children on their own for various reasons discussed in the study. However, there is no denial of the fact that there is much importance of play and activities in the learning process of the children and that both the parents and the practitioners believe the same.

Considering all the aspects of the learning, it can be easily said that the first step of learning for every child is by the means of play. In fact, if the children want to learn something, they might not be able to understand it as a formal education. In such cases, the role of the parents and the practitioners in shaping the right goals and objectives for their children to learn and get educated is important. It can be rightly recommended that in spite of the fact that there remain many chances when the practitioners and the parents would be able to give proper guidance to their children to learn everything from their individual surroundings. Moreover, as already mentioned that it is not only the theoretical and the formal teachings that has to be taught to the children but the basic and elementary learning like that of behaviour and teaching against discrimination, and equality are also the important things under consideration. Thus, the attitude of the parents and practitioners has to be changed and that they need to be focused on the improvement and betterment of the children and preparing them for the purpose of formal education in future.

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