LEARNING THROUGH PLAY

This is a very basic outline of what we are doing in the different age groups at school and I hope it is informative.  As you can see, the children are LEARNING THROUGH PLAY

  • Perception
  • Auditory Perception
  • Tactile Perception
  • Olfactory Perception
  • Gustatory Perception
  • Language Development & Number Skills
This is the ability of the brain to make contact with the outside world by means of information coming in through the senses.” Grove and Hauptfleish 76. 

This covers all areas of development that a child needs to be able to read, write and do maths.  Perceptual problems can make academic learning very difficult, even if the child is very intelligent.

a.Visual Perception
This plays a very important part in all activities.  When children have accurate visual perception, this enables them to read, write and do maths more easily at school.  If they have problems in this area, they find it difficult to discern objects and their relationships to each other in space.  They can become very unsure of themselves.
b.Visual Motor Co-Ordination
This is the co-operation of the eyes and the body muscles and allows the child to be able to perform daily activities such as dressing (including buttons and laces), creative activities (such as drawing, cutting, glueing) and later on, writing and needlework or any activity with nimble fingers, including sport and chores.  Encourage your child to do exercises that encourage body image and finding out how the body works as well as left/right sides e.g. Do this, do that; Touch knees with nose, Touch teddy’s ears, Body puzzles such as Jumbolina.
c.Gross Motor Co-Ordination
This involves the development of the large muscles of the body.  Activities are designed to mainly use these muscles.  The foundation of intellectual activity and knowledge is inter-dependant on accurate movement of the large muscles and control over them.  A child’s body and its functions are an integral part of the learning process, as a child doesn’t only learn with his/her brain.  Children must be encouraged to crawl, walk in different ways, climb, jump, stretch, curl, etc.
d.Balance
Balancing activities include walking on a taped line, balancing beams, bean bags on head, shoulders and tummy, crab walking, etc
e.Visual Discrimination
This is the ability to distinguish by using the eyes and the ability to see differences and similarities.  A child who has a problem with visual discrimination will find it difficult to distinguish between different figures and later on, letters or words.  To progress at school, a child must have good visual discrimination.  Play matching cards, dominoes, sorting objects, odd one out, peg boards, etc.
Controlled eye movements are important as well as visual memory or recall (remembering what you have seen.)  Visual conceptualization is the understanding of ideas and abstract ideas.  A child with poor visual recall can’t remember what his eyes have seen, i.e. what his house looks like, the colour of his mom’s eyes.  Activities: Kim’s game, association of colours, form and size, to the left and
right of, Geostacks, stack and match, peg boards, etc
f.Eye-Hand Co-Ordination
This is the ability to make the hands do what the eyes want them to do i.e. working to perform everyday tasks. “A child explores the world in which he lives by means of his eyes and his hands which, together, examine objects around him.” Grove.  Activities: Keeping a balloon in the air by hitting it, throwing bean bags into a basket, skittles, bouncing ball, dots, building blocks, etc.
g.Fine Motor Movements
This is the movement using the small muscles of the body.  Normal everyday activities make huge demands on a child’s fine motor co-ordination where he needs to perform accurate movements with his fingers and hands.  These movements include all creative work, drawing, colouring, pictures, copying and writing.  Motor movements and hand muscle activities must be practiced to improve and exercise these muscles.  Examples are drawing, stencilling, play dough, finger painting, cutting, peg boards, puzzles, tricky fingers, etc
h.Figure-Ground Perception
This is being able to distinguish between objects in the foreground and in the background and being able to distinguish between the two.  The child must be able to choose the important things and push the unimportant ones into the background, i.e. to isolate one face from a crowd, fetch one object from a full cupboard.  A child mustn’t be sidetracked by sudden movement, bright colours etc. They must be able to concentrate on the task at hand.  Problems with figure-ground perception can also take place with hearing i.e. a conversation in a noisy place.  They must be able to ignore the noises and other sounds.  If they can’t, confusion and distraction takes place.  Activities: Indicate objects in a room and then look for a specific one, look for identical objects, different objects, dominoes, Lego, block models.
i.Form Constancy and Perception
This is being able to distinguish between forms and symbols in ones environment, regardless of size or angle and characteristics of objects such as form, shape or colour.  A child must be able to recognise certain basic forms or shapes.  Activities include following a circle on the floor, making a circle with hands, body groups, chalk square – child to walk / crawl along lines and into corners, sorting objects into sizes, block patterns, peg boards, brainy blocks.
j.Perception of Position in Space
This is the perception of a relation between an object and child.  Space is given structure by means of visual observation.  They see the objects as being in front of, behind, below, above or alongside themselves.  If there is a problem in this area, the child’s world is distorted and confusing.  They don’t understand concepts such as in, out, up, down, etc.  The movement of the body has to adjust to the distance it has to move in a certain time span.  Activities: to copy movements and gestures, follow instructions and directions, crawling and walking exercises, puzzles, body games, songs with movement, mirrors, using cars to cross midline, side to side colouring, different colour pegs in top / bottom corner.
k.Perception of Special Relations
This is being able to see the position of two or more objects in relation to yourself and in relation to one another.  Activities include three dimensional objects such as coloured square blocks with instructions, peg boards, crawling through drums, under tables, hoola hoops.

 

It is the ability to interpret the information sent to the brain by the ears. 
The child must be able to correctly reproduce what he has heard. Listening exercises improves the auditory perception. 

Activities:
- eyes closed and identify certain actions and sounds,
- child to make noises,
- lengthening instructions,
- nonsense instructions,
- I Spy,
- rhyming words,
- odd one out,
- story tapes,
- identify animals by sound.This is the information sent to the brain by means of touch by the skin and fingers. 

Activities:
- Feely bag with objects and shapes of different textures and outlines touching hard and soft, smooth and rough textures.This is how the brain interprets information sent to it by the sense of smell.

Activities:
- identify different substances by means of smell This is when the brain interprets information sent to it by taste organs. 

Activities:
- what different foods taste like, sweet and sour,
- guessing games,
- comparisons.These are taught by means of our themes and continuously throughout the day. 
This is related to science, nature studies, health, geography etc.  We are generally making the children aware of the world around us.
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