By Dr. Elaine Heffner, St. John News
You can often hear criticism voiced about pre-school groups as, “Oh, they just play there.” It is only when children are being taught letters, numbers or other academic material that they are seen as learning. Play has been called children’s work, and children are working at mastering many things through play. A colleague once said that you can’t learn the letter A without first experiencing an apple. What she meant was that letters are symbols and that a child needs to experience real things before confronting the symbols. It is that kind of experience that helps prepare children to learn to read and write. It is that kind of experience that children often are having when they play. Just as important, if not more, is the kind of emotional learning that grows out of play.
http://www.sjnewsonline.com/opinion/20180904/dr-elaine-heffner-learning-through-play
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