The benefit of play and creativity within an early years’ setting

Creativity is often taken to involve the creative and performing arts along with self-expression. These are important dimensions of children’s learning and development. However, other definitions of creativity are much broader than the arts. The commonly used one, is imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education, 1999: 29, cited in Miller, Cable and Devereux, 2005).  Creativity is a key aspect of learning and development, supported by many theorists and academics. The QCA suggest that creativity involves children in thinking or behaviour involving questioning and challenging; making connections and seeing relationships; envisaging ideas and keeping options open; and reflecting critically on ideas, actions and outcomes (QCA, 2005a, 2005b, cited in Wilson, 2009). This suggests that creativity is a crucial aspect of a child’s life as they are developing many important skills, both social and personal. Bruner et al supported this in 1976. They said that play has traditionally been made to carry an immense purpose for children as it is through play that children learn (James, 2008).

Play is an essential part of a child’s life as it is the means of living and of understanding life (Isaacs 1954: 23, cited in Miller, Cable and Devereux, 2005). Although we cannot precisely define play, many people agree that there are certain characteristics associated with play and playful activities. The most generally accepted are those associated with Garvey, 2007 that argues that play can be defined in terms of dispositions and characteristics. These characteristics include symbolic, meaningful, active, pleasurable, voluntary, rule-governed, episodic, and flexible (Curtis and O’Hagan, 2008). Thus, the practitioner must encourage all types of play in order for a child to develop all areas and associated areas. Kalliala provides a view of play that suggests that play paves the way for later development and learning. The children learn various skills whilst playing and generate “learning products”. Although hey don’t play in order to learn, they learn whilst playing (2006:20 cited in Reed and Canning, 2009). Frobel believed that play is developed from within the child. However, the presence of the adult and the provision of appropriate materials nurture the play (Curtis and O’Hagan, 2008).

Piaget identified three stages of the development of intelligence: sensory-motor, pre-operational, and operational. He believed that these stages corresponded to three types of play: mastery play, symbolic play, and games with rules. Piaget disclosed that when engaging in mastery play in the first two years of the child’s life, they practice and control movements whilst using all of their senses through repetitive movements. Thus, linking to the sensory-motor stage of development. When engaging in symbolic play, between the ages of two and seven years, children begin involving themselves and objects in their own imagination. For example, pretending that they themselves are a dinosaur or pretending that a spoon is a telephone.  This play corresponds to the pre-operational stage of development. Finally, play with rules corresponds to the operational stage of development (Maynard and Thomas, 2004). When a child engages in symbolic play, they often take on a character such as an astronaut. This not only develops gross motor skills from running around and throwing, it also develops their emotional intelligence. They feel focused, motivated, anxious, excited, and socially confident as they take on the characters persona (Canning, 2010). Thus, though pretending to be someone else, they are developing their understanding of emotions in other people and why they may feel a certain way.
In order to provide and enabling environment for creative play, the setting must be well resourced with equipment that is likely to stimulate the children’s curiosity; the children must have ample time in order to try out their ideas, make mistakes and succeed in their creativity (May, 2008). In the setting of a preschool in Ashbourne, with children aged 3 to 4 years, the provider adhere to this theory as they a well resourced and provide alternative equipment so that the children can create in many ways so that their creation is unique to themselves. This ensures that each child has a product to be proud of, which is unlike anybody else’s. They are given all day in order to complete these activities but are encouraged to try others as the day progresses. However, the creative activity is usually limited to one kind per day. It would be more beneficial for the children to have more than one as they can use both resources together and experiment with different types of creativity. “All people have creative abilities and we all have them differently. When individuals find their creative strengths, it can have an enormous impact on self-esteem and on overall achievement” (National Advisory Committee, 1999). It is often that the children are disciplined for using their creations in their play. This is a crucial part of imaginative play as they are using their own creations in role-playing. It is however, important that they do not use them as weapons.

Children should be able to engage in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional exploration of creativity. Examples of two-dimensional explorations include; mark making with a range of tools using fine and gross motor skills; painting with a wide variety of paints and tools; finger painting; and printmaking. (Skinner, 2007) This gives the child a varied basis for 2D creativity and ensures that both gross and fine motor skills are being developed. Examples of three-dimensional explorations include; making structures of a chosen scale using an variation of different materials and objects. Some of these materials will be new to the child and therefore demand the development of new skills; and the exploration of malleable materials such as play dough and paint mixed with glue (Skinner, 2007). This allows the child to create a structure using their own imagination using both fine and gross motor skills, and finally, something that they can be proud of.
Tina Bruce discusses the idea of ‘cultivating’ creativity. She uses it in the same way as Vygotsky (1978). She emphasised the importance of adults to support rather than to impose, and to nourish curiosity from within rather than imposing learning from beyond (Paige-Smith and Craft, 2007). This means that the adult should not give strict creative tasks to children where they must do what a detailed plan says, as they have no room for imagination and self-development. As it is important that children are encouraged to challenge perceptions through developing unique creations (Skinner, 2007) a strict plan would not enable this.
Children choose to communicate their ideas and knowledge in several ways, such as through doodling, drawing, painting, and modelling with dough or clay. Multi-modality is crucial for all children. However, it maybe even more vital for boys as the often have difficulty in more formal ways of recording such as creative writing (Wilson, 2009). Hence, an enabling environment should have varied and numerous ways in which children can present their ideas and knowledge. Equally, the practitioner must also encourage the use of different modes of creativity so that the child can develop other skills and master the appropriate developmental milestones within time.
Play can be child-initiated, creative and a process. However it is not the opposite of work (Miller, Cable and Devereux, 2005). Drawing or painting will seem like play for a child but the method and the end result is crucial to determining a child’s reached and unreached developmental milestones. It also makes a significant contribution towards the mental health and social well-being of a child. With regards to the insurance of inclusive practice, children who are new to the setting may find it hard to join in at first. This is when the practitioner must intervene and attempt to make the child feel more comfortable. Also, if a child has a disability or learning difficulties, it is fundamental to provide appropriate aid in playing and communicating with others (Miller, Cable and Devereux, 2005). In a preschool setting in Ashbourne, a disabled child was encouraged to stay away from the other children as he had a habit of pulling other children’s hair and therefore had potential to cause them harm. Although, this was safeguarding the other children from harm, the detrimental effect to the child with a learning difficulty was vast. Although he had a key worker on hand for most of the day, he was gaining no social skills to speak of and he was not able to play in a group of other children.
In conclusion, certain conditions need to be met to ensure an enabling environment for the child to be creative. These include being comfortable in the environment so that they can play. They should be provided with a range of different equipment so that they can experiment and think of new and alternative ways in which they can create a unique product. Although play and creativity are very different there are very strong links, especially when regarding the child. With most types of play, comes creativity. Although children need some aid when creating, they should be predominantly left to create their own product. This somewhat guarantees that they will be proud of the end result.

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