Supervising play

Provide experiences to support children's play and learning CHCPR301C

This unit is about giving children activities that improve their development and leisure. It relates to various aspects of child development:

  • physical fitness and fundamental movement skills
  • thinking ("cognitive")
  • social
  • emotional
  • creative and aesthetic
  • language
  • moral
  • spiritual.

The kinds of experiences you offer will vary according to factors in your service, such as child-worker ratios, the constraints and potential of the physical environment, the purpose of the service, the amount and kind of support and participation from parents. Other factors include the level of support available to the service from external bodies (e.g. specialist advice, resource workers, and how often and how regularly the child uses the service.

 

Requirements

1. Create a stimulating, positive and developmentally appropriate environment to foster development, play and learning

  1. Provide areas, resources and materials for different kinds of play and physical activity
  2. Change the resources regularly to provide variety of activity
  3. Ensure play and physical activity reflect the cultural diversity, gender and abilities of children
  4. Set up environment in a way that is safe, non threatening, challenging and stimulating
  5. Allow enough time for play to develop and be completed when possible
  6. Identify children's individual interests and needs and support by provision of activities or materials
  7. Provide a range of physical activities to allow children choice in their play whenever possible
  8. Provide opportunities for both group and individual play activities and experiences indoors and outdoors

The kind of social interaction varies according to the age of the children. For example, babies can develop trusting relationships with familiar adults who will work at eye level with infants, listen to infants and respond to them, use care routines for social interaction and talk, sing and recite poems.

See chart for ways of facilitating play that suit the child's age and stage of development:

 

2. Actively guide and encourage children to undertake a variety of developmentally appropriate activities/P>

  1. Encourage and acknowledge children's efforts
  2. Use activities, resources and materials flexibly to meet children's individual preferences and prompt extensions of play
  3. Encourage children to participate in a variety of experiences and to choose activities that support their development and fundamental movement skills competency and confidence
  4. Show respect for children's choice not to participate and encourage them where experience is new or unknown

 

3. Facilitate children's play, learning and physical activity

  1. Prepare and provide suitable materials for activities
  2. Guide individual children's play and leisure, varying it according to the child's age, abilities, interests, culture, development and need
  3. Provide a range of experiences to stimulate children and aid their development
  4. Initiate play and physical activities and invite children to participate
  5. Follow child's lead in play and physical activity and participate when invited
  6. Interact with children and enjoy their play; be enthusiastic and playful
  7. Monitor children's reactions to play environment so that each child remains interested and challenged but not frustrated
  8. Encourage children to include other children in their play
  9. Monitor interaction between children to ensure children remain safe and interact appropriately
  10. Redirect children's inappropriate play
  11. Provide an interesting and varied natural outdoor space to encourage active play

Skills related to physical development may include: hand-eye coordination, dexterity, fine and gross motor skills, balance/static, locomotion, and motor skills.

 

4. Other skills

  1. Work effectively with young children within a historical and philosophical framework of child care delivery
  2. Demonstrate effective placement of equipment, considering safety, movement of children, different ages/ stages of development of children
  3. Adapt environment to encourage different types of play and stages of play
  4. Adapt play or leisure experiences for different children according to needs, interests
  5. Assess fundamental movement skills development
  6. Planning, including managing your time
  7. Manage contingencies
  8. Accept families' different attitudes about play
  9. Reflect on your own practices
  10. Relating to people effectively, including active listening and communicating with children

 
   

Your assessment

You will be assessed in your workplace. Start by taking your assessor on a walk around and show him/her what you do. Your assessor may ask you any questions. During the walkaround, describe in outline your organization's standards, policies and procedures.

As you go, show your assessor the kinds of thing that could be safety hazards for children and explain what you do (or have done) to minimize these risks. (For example, safety measures available to minimize safety risks for children and others including sun safety, selection of equipment, equipment use and maintenance, standards of safety for equipment e.g. soft falls area under equipment.)

Your supervisor will also be asked to give a reference.

Interview/assignment questions

Your assessor may give you these questions as an assignment. If you are assessed through an interview, then you might want to prepare written notes beforehand. However, they should be used only as a guide and you will not pass the assessment just by reading your notes.

  1. What is the value of play and leisure to human development and health?
  2. Write a summary of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing 2004, National Physical Activity Recommendations for Children and Youth.
  3. Write list of age groups for children aged 0 to 12 years, and for each age group, describe the fundamental movement skills and associated milestones for physical development.
  4. Explain the kinds and complexities of play and leisure
  5. Describe the range of leisure interests of the children in your care.
  6. What different cultural beliefs about children's play and leisure do families have? In your answer, consider that these beliefs often vary according to the child's age. What aspects of play do different cultures regard as important and appropriate?
  7. Write a simple summary of your organization's standards, policies and procedures.
  8. Write list of age groups for children aged 0 to 12 years, and describe their development in terms of kinds of play appropriate for each stage and the kinds of resources/materials are appropriate for each stage.
  9. What are the effects on a child if he/she feels left out or "different" from everybody else? (Consider various causes such as race, gender and ability.)
  10. How does your organization's quality improvement and accreditation system work?