How Children Learn Through Play?

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Hi,
One of the best ways to boost learning is providing an unstructured and free playtime regime. Teachers and parents may want to ensure just enough freedom to allow children to explore the real world around them. For a child who is still young, the world that lies around him looks positive, colorful, vivid and strange at the same time. It is also a confusing situation when the child finds understanding the world very difficult and tedious.

Playtime is a beneficial way to create a rich, stimulating and enthusiastic environment where children would find learning, exploring and discovering very interesting and intoxicating. Playtime is also a great tool to help children boost a series of skills that relate directly to cognitive brain development. Have fun!

Thought for today:
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow!" - Melody Beattie

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How Children Learn Through Play?
Play time is learning time. Children, who enjoy unstructured play, develop a series of skills and abilities all of which are related to optimal brain development. Click to learn more.

Q1: My daughter is 4.5 yrs of age and loves to read books. She knew a lot of things even by the age of 2.5. Her love for books is amazing as she can sit reading books day/night. She can read even level 4 books and not very fluently manages to even read the encyclopedias. She has good memory and loves to learn new things. I never pressurize her to study and does all of this by herself. I seldom help her. She could speak very fluent English since she was 2.5 yrs of age and has always stood out in pre school. She is now in jr kg and knows her whole syllabus even before taught in school. Very curious and willing to learn. Has very good concentration....

A: Your daughter surely demonstrate distinct qualities of gifted children and based on your description of her abilities, it appears that she may be potentially gifted. It is great to know that you have not been pressuring her to learn more and that she is learning at the pace and appears to be enjoying it well based on the development of her abilities.....Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Possibly Gifted Preschooler here.

Q2: I have a child who has twice been given the WISC with FS IQ scores in the middle to high 40's. As a young child she suffered from seizures but no brain damage was noted. The seizures were controlled with medication. She eventually "out grew" the seizures and has not been on medication for years. She is 14 years old. Caucasian. History of abandonment, sexual abuse, and neglect.

Currently, our local school system will not accept our psychologists evaluation and provide services that we feel she needs. Instead, they have evaluated her using the Reynolds where she obtained a FS IQ of 75. Her individual achievement scores are too high for her to qualify for having learning disabilities etc....

A: Briefly, the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales (RAIS), considered as a newcomer in the world of intelligence testing, appears to be the shortest full-intelligence test compared to other intelligence assessment. It takes only about 35 minutes to administer. In contrast to most existing measures of intelligence, the RIAS eliminates dependence on motor coordination, visual-motor speed, and reading skills.... Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Discrepancy between different IQ Scores here.

Q3: We just received the terra nova & Inview test results in the mail for our 3rd grader son. His total Inview score is 82, which I understand means he doesn't belong to the gifted group.

My question is since my son just moved to this new school district/school - couple months before the tests were administered. He was having a hard time adjusting because there were kids who picked on him when he first started. Not sure it would have had negative impact on his tests scores. Can his scores change next year....

A: The Terra Nova tests compare students with others in their grades around the nation. Hence, the scores are listed in percentiles. It also includes a component that acts like an IQ test (the InView portion). Therefore, this is a part of the Terra Nova test rather than a separate indicator. This component measures the students' ability to use information and apply it to new and different situations. It also gauges how a student analyzes and employs higher-level thinking skills.... Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on The Terra Nova Inview and IQ tests here.

Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn--and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less
By Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D

Parents are told that we have the power to make our children smarter by playing certain music, or buying specific toys, or signing them up for special activities. Unfortunately, in our quest to help our kids be successful, we are running ourselves - and our kids - ragged.

Psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek has some good news for exhausted parents: allowing your kids free time to play may be the best thing you'll ever do for them. With Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, she has written a book called, "Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How our Children REALLY Learn - And Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less.

Creative Play for Your Baby: Steiner Waldorf Expertise and Toy Projects for 3 Months-2 Years
By Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol

Babies and young toddlers explore their worlds through creative play. Based on the Steiner theory—the world-renowned holistic approach to childhood education as taught in the Waldorf Schools—this illustrated guide offers advice for parents on helping your baby develop mind, body, and spirit through stimulating imaginative play. Practical instruction is provided for each stage of development, centering around some 25 age-appropriate toys that parents can make at home.

The playthings include dolls and puppets, knitted animals, rattles and balls, simple cars and other vehicles, blocks, and even a sandbox. The toys will stir the imagination, enhance sensory awareness, and enable children to discover more of their expanding world.

No sign that omega-3s benefit babies' brains
Chicago Tribune Feb 08, 2013

A review of the existing evidence finds it to be inconclusive about whether omega-3 fatty acids taken by mothers during pregnancy boost their kids' brain development early in life.

Impacts of television watching on the young childs developing brain
Mareeq Jan 27, 2013

Picture this. You are a busy mother trying to keep an eye on your young children, while trying to get dinner ready. What to do? The truth is some would turn the TV on, in hopes of occupying the kids for a short while.

Kids Who Eat Breakfast May Have Slightly Higher IQs
Psych Central Feb 10, 2013

Children who eat breakfast on a near-daily basis have significantly higher scores in verbal and performance IQ tests, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Making kids smarter: Stimulation, diet boost IQ scores
News Miner Jan 25, 2013

A friend of mine has a 2-year-old and a new baby. Like many parents, he is trying to figure out how he can give his children every educational advantage.

Raise Your Play I.Q. - The 'Art' of conversing with children
Positively Naperville Feb 08, 2013

Many consider holding conversations to be a primary teaching technique of early childhood educators. Everyone, however, can practice techniques to carry on meaningful and facilitative conversations with young children that foster language development during play.

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