learning through play – SEND Support

Why should I sing?

I recently had to write an essay about this subject and it inspired me so much I had to share some of my findings with you. I am mainly writing this to any parent who wonders why they should sing because they feel a bit silly or to the people who do song time at work but they don’t really know why and again may feel a bit silly! Let me encourage you never to feel silly again because what you are doing is immensely powerful and an incredible learning tool!

So why sing…

It supports language development
There are a number of reasons for this…
Singing similar songs time and time again builds vocabulary. If you sing sleeping bunnies a million times over, the vocabulary sinks in and if mixed with the actions or signing the words embed quicker and easier. There isn’t a right or wrong outcome with music and singing. They can choose to listen or join in or experiment, therefor the children feel more confident and safe to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. It also helps with the techniques needed for communication, such as taking turns, intonation and expression.

It helps build attachment
This one is mainly for parents and main carers. The act of singing supports building a bond, when you sing you give eye contact, you laugh together, you hug and play. The moment you start singing your child is more interested in what is happening and is more engaged and therefore that bond/attachment deepens. I use to run a choir for mums with postnatal depression – and the positive effects of singing such as, lower blood pressure, increased happiness, sense of belonging then filtered down from the mums to the children. Because they felt stronger and happier the connection with their children grew. It was a privilege to watch over time.

It helps support focus and interest
There is something called ‘Infant directed Speech’ (IDS) – speech that has more exaggerated pitch and tones. (Young, 2017) We use greater facial expressions and body movements, which excite and interest the child, meaning they pay more attention. Dionyssiou (2009)states these types of interactions ‘contributes to babies cognitive development, regulation of emotions, and supports memory, language, learning and attentiveness’. During song time IDS is being used all the time and encouraging this in-depth development. But also encouraging children to take notice, to participate and join in. I also now sing a lot of my instructions, it means they focus in on what I am singing and most of the time do as I am singing. I’ve also said before how many times I have sung ‘Let it go’ from ‘Frozen’ and how it settles children and supports pre-verbal children to join in. It’s a great song!

It is brilliant for People learning English as an additional language (EAL).
Probably for all of the reasons mentioned above singing is also incredible for people learning English. Singing – Repetition, interest, safe surroundings all support language learning. “Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland found evidence that singing can help facilitate language learning. Sixty adults participated in the study, which involved 15 minutes of listening to Hungarian phrases and then repeating the phrases normally or through song. When the participants were tested on the material, the researchers discovered those who used singing scored higher than the others.” (Article) So at work I have a lot of parents join in the singing too and I love seeing their confidence grow as they join in.

So don’t feel silly any more. I use to wonder ‘why am I doing this?’ But not any more I am developing enquiring minds young and more mature and it’s great!! Also don’t feel the pressure to use CD’s and complicated versions of the songs, your voice is enough. “Babies do not seem as able to process the multiple strands of music on a commercially produced CD” (Young, 2018). A CD would make me loose focus on the benefits of singing. I might loose the facial expressions needed or the exaggerated intonation that is so important with this type of play and creativity. So dust off your vocal chords and have fun singing!

Speech and Play

Play is a fantastic medium for children to explore, learn and experience new things. Sometimes play and learning get separated into two categories and it is thought the two things can’t really meet. But this is simply not true.

Play and learning can intertwine perfectly and children can learn new skills (like pouring in water play) or how things move from one place to another (playing with cars) or even over coming fears through play (if a child is scared of a dog, then playing with soft toy dogs or playing dogs with friends, helps them to understand their fear and supports them to process their fear).

So it stands to reason that speech can also be supported through play too. This is the same for children with additional needs and those without, all children can benefit in their speech through play.

When a child is playing they use this experience to use the language they have learnt in their everyday. For example playing with cars, they may use the sounds they have heard cars make – vroom vroom. Or they may use language used around cars e.g. come on, over there, faster etc. Playing with dinosaurs can help explore sounds such as Roar and stomp. So even children with minimal speech can explore sounds and language through play. And through play, children can feel safe to use the language they have and to try out new words.

You can use play to also help support children learning new words. Play is very visual, so by you showing children the objects they are playing with and using the correct words to name them you are giving them a visual representation of what the word is and what the word means. For example, you are playing together with a farm and there is a cat, if you were to say the word for the first time and they haven’t seen a cat the word wouldn’t mean anything, but as you play you show them the cat, you help them hear the sound a cat makes and they have a real grasp of what a cat is. And as you play you as the adult keep repeating the word, you keep repeating the sound and gradually the child builds the confidence to say cat or to make the sound. This is a very basic example, but it gives you the idea.

If there are words or concepts that you are trying to help your child learn such as ‘on’ or ‘off’, then why not use play. ‘O no the bird has fallen off the tree’. Set up play activities that support the word or concept, and that really encourage language. Even balls going through a tunnel – ‘where has it gone?’

These are some trays I have made for work, but you could also make them just as easily at home with items you have at home.

You could use this type of play to support language about family members, household objects or inside and outside. You as the adult don’t lead the play, but you are involved and you use lots of opportunities to speak about these different topics.

This tray is about cars, but also about the different surfaces they are travelling on – language such as rough, bumpy, smooth can be used. You can think about the car is it going fast or slow. Again so much language can be practiced and introduced with a very simple set up.

For some children learning to talk has to be more intentional and can take a bit longer, but it can also be fun for you and them.

“Why does my child play like that?” – Play Schemas.

In my job I get the amazing privilege of not only working with children but spending time with the parents too. Naturally parents have a lot of questions and one of the main questions I’ve had recently is “why does my child play like that?”

It was a question I asked a lot when my son was little. I would spend ages setting up nice play activities, then he would come along and just swipe everything off the table. So yes it was a question I would sometimes ask with tears in my eyes. But then I read about Play Schemas and all became a bit clearer and a tiny bit less frustrating. My son was exploring the trajectory play schema.

A play schema is a pattern of play or play behaviour that children go through when they are exploring the world. Through their pattern of play they establish how the world looks and how it works. Research has shown that there are 8 main play schemas.
1. Connecting
2. Orientation
3. Transporting
4. Trajectory
5. Positioning
6. Enveloping
7. Enclosing
8. Rotation
I’ll explain each one as we go along, but the joy of understanding what schema your child is currently exploring means you can expand on the play and explore different elements of the schema, but you can know that eventually (possibly) it will pass.

So what do they each mean and what can you do to increase the fun?

Connecting
The connecting schema is your child’s way of working out how things come together and come apart. Your child may love putting train tracks together (and taking them apart) or building towers and knocking them down.

Increase the fun:
– By dancing together and linking arms.

– Cut strips of masking tape and stick plastic animals to a table or flat work surface – let your child peel off the masking tape to rescue the animals.

– Thread beads or pasta onto pipe cleaners.

Orientation
Your child is trying to experience the world from a different angle or viewpoint. This is useful to support their physical play.

Increase the fun:
– Lots of different physical activities such as climbing, running, running down hills and jumping.

– Play from different view points – lay on the floor whilst playing with cars or stand up at a table whilst playing with small world toys.

Transporting
Very simply put, moving things from A – B.

Increase the fun
– They may like playing with cars, but do different activities with cars, like attach pens on the backs of cars and then move them around big bits of paper and see what patterns they make or stick labels on cars and write on numbers or letters. Then write the same numbers or letters on a big piece of paper and see if they can match them up.

– Have lots of objects around that you can use to transport things. Such as play buggies, wheelbarrows, trollies, bags or baskets.

– Water play with lots of cups – moving water from one cup to another.

– Or a tray of porridge oats with scoops and pots.

Trajectory
This schema explores the movement of an object. Your child may drop food from their high chair or scatter their toys. These are mini experiments watching how long something takes to travel or how does it fall, where will it land?

Increase the fun
You may not feel like this schema is much fun, as it doesn’t feel very productive. But there are ways to embrace the trajectory schema.

– Play tag

– Roll cars down a ramp

– Push cotton reels off a table into a bucket

– Attach string to two chairs and thread a straw onto the string. Attach different objects to the string and push them along.

Positioning
Have you watched your child line up their toys really carefully. This is the first steps to organising and creating patterns.

Increase the fun
– Get different objects to line up or sort – go for a walk in the woods and collect acorns or pine cones.

– Threading

– For older ones – have a go at sewing

– Games like Jenga

Enveloping and Enclosing
These two schemas are closely linked. It is where the children like to envelope themselves or objects in boxes or materials. Do your keys or credit cards go missing regularly, most probably your child is exploring the enclosing schema.

Increase the fun
– Den building

– Make blankets and pieces of fabric available for wrapping themselves up or wrapping toys up.

– Play tunnels for the children to crawl through or make tunnels for toy cars to go through or you can buy rabbit tunnels from pet shops for cars or small world toys to go in.

Rotation
Children exploring this schema love watching things that spin or twist. But also they may like themselves to spin.

Increase the fun
– Play with hoops

– Find a large space and do lots of spinning

– Get round baking tins and drop them (maybe don’t us your favourite tin) and watch them spin when they land.

– Playing with toys that have wheels

– Attach some string to the underside of a table and attach a bracelet or a hoop of some sort and let your child enjoy spinning the hoop.

Your children may be interested in one or two schemas at the same time or focussed on one particular schema at a time. Just don’t despair, this is your child’s way of learning through play!

Here is a quick look download with the play schemas and activities you can do to increase the fun!

Play Schema quick look.pdf Download