Teacher-Child Co-Play

Play has always been a part of human lives, regardless of which historical time we live in. All of us probably have certain memories of childhood play as well as adulthood play. Adults' memory of childhood play will differ from that of today's children, especially in the amount, space, and materials of play used during early childhood. Today's children likely play with different toys compared with the toys adults used when they were young. The forms of play may be different; however, all humans are born to play and need to play to sustain the quality and balance of their lives. Regardless of the differences in the play experience between children and adults today, the question of whether adults should co-play with children and how they should co-play have been ongoing questions for early childhood educators.

Today, many parents are pressured with higher academic demands at earlier ages in their children's lives. Such pressure contributes to creating a low opinion of play in early childhood classrooms, with some considering play a waste of learning time or rest time.

However, the largest early-childhood organization in the United States, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), defines play as one of the most important guiding principle in the early-childhood curriculum. In the recently revised 3rd edition of their position statement, the NAEYC stated that: “Play is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as for promoting language, cognition, and social competence…. Rather than detracting from academic learning, play appears to support the abilities that underlie such learning and thus to promote school success.

Then, is an early-childhood teacher's attitude about play different from that of parents? The early-childhood teachers' view of play seems to depend largely on the preparation they received and their own personal philosophy of play, because there are various paths to becoming an early-childhood teacher. Some teachers are certified in a child development and family studies program; others receive and education for teaching grades K-12 with an additional early childhood certification. Both programs provide different ideas for the value of play in early-childhood development. In addition, many teachers in childcare settings do not have college degrees. The variety in preparation and background of early-childhood teachers results in different views on whether teachers should play with children.