Child-Initiated Play Promotes Whole-Person Development
Author: Serena Fan, Founder and Executive Director of Hong Kong Children’s Discovery Museum
November 2019
Children are naturally playful, especially when given the time and space to do so. They will take initiatives to freely discover their surrounding environments, explore ways to get along with others, as well as better understand and express their emotions and thoughts. The concept of child-initiated play promotes that children can and should make decisions for themselves. When children play, they are brainstorming, designing, and formulating ideas. Such actions help nurture children’s creativity, develop their leadership skills, and improve children’s problem-solving, and social skills. These vital child-initiated experiences are also a reason why in 2017, the Curriculum Development Institute at the Education Bureau proposed an amendment regarding the core value of kindergarten programs to promote comprehensive and balanced development in children through approaches of "Learning through Play". This aims to “uphold the essential principle of understanding and respecting the unique developmental patterns of every child”, providing ample opportunities for children to freely explore, express, create and learn.
Enhancing Children’s Problem Solving Skills and Creativity Through Child-Initiated Play
At HKCDM, it is often observed that parents and children have opposing opinions about whether to first focus on playing at one exhibit or to look at all the exhibits before deciding where to play. Typically, parents will attempt to encourage children to walk around to look at the different exhibits first before playing, while children may refuse to do so as they have already started playing at one exhibit. If parents have encountered this similar situation, we encourage you to trust your child and let them decide their own pace of playing. Focusing on a task or object means that children are very interested in their current play, and are actively exploring and thinking. Such actions are not only a part of child-initiated play, but helps to foster children's attention span and to develop new interests.
Let Children Freely Discover with Guidance from Teachers and Parents
Apart from the concept of “child-initiated play”, the ways to play and teachers’ and parents’ coordination are also very important. In Hong Kong, adults tend to be the ones to decide what and how to play to learn. Yet, the aspect of play in “learning through play” is different. Instead of being result oriented, the process of play is equally, if not, more important. Moreover, open-ended responses are encouraged, as they give children more flexibility and freedom in adopting different methods and perspectives to problem solve. Adults often ask children to follow their way, because they think they know what is best for their child, but oftentimes limits children’s freedom of thought. To practice “child-initiated play”, when children encounter difficulties, teachers and parents should encourage children to seek answers by themselves through presenting guiding questions, rather than directly giving advice and/or instructions.
Next time, when children play, try standing or sitting quietly beside and observe the children for five minutes. Pay attention to the following while observing: 1) What are the children doing? 2) Does anything, such as sounds or a visual, capture the children’s attention? 3) What facial expressions do the children display? If the children seem relaxed and focused, parents should let them continue to focus on their play. If children look nervous, as if they have encountered difficulties, parents can first wait patiently and then actively respond to any questions raised or a request for help. Taking a few moments before jumping into situations helps to nurture children’s sense of initiative and ability to self-express.
When children raise questions, parents can first patiently listen and acknowledge their concerns. Parents are not omniscient, so there is no need to immediately provide answers. Instead, parents can parrot back the heard questions and concerns and invite the children to engage in discovery together. Through doing so, children know that parents understand their questions or confusions and can enjoy the problem solving process together. It also helps to promote children’s observational skills. For instance, when looking at a beetle, parents may say, “This is a beetle. This is a brown beetle. As with other insects, the bodies of beetles consist of three segments - the head, thorax and abdomen. Let’s count how many legs the beetle has!” Through such actions, parents can establish closer relationships with their children, gain deeper understandings of their children, and know when it is appropriate to let their children lead their own play.
HKCDM is the first museum in Hong Kong dedicated to child-led learning through play. HKCDM enriches children’s lives through educational hands-on exhibits, play-based learning experiences and interactive facilitated programs. In addition, CDM also collaborates with communities and local schools in organizing field trips to promote “learning through play” and spark lifelong learning across generations.
（原文刊登於《今日校園》）