The Right to Play

YOUNG CHILDREN HAVE THE RIGHT TO LEARN THROUGH PLAY

Children learn through play. Through their play, children develop sensory motor control, eyehand
co-ordination and problem solving skills.  Physical, social, intellectual, and emotional development are all enhanced through play.

CAYC believes that it is important for children to play.  Children have a natural mechanism that enables them to make sense of their world — that mechanism is play. For over 100 years, researchers have studied play and have found that play:

* enhances a child’s language development  (Garvey 1974)
* encourages creativity and problem-solving  (Dansky 1980)
* provides a context through which the child develops representational thought, an essential foundation for reading, mathematics and science (Vygotsky, in. J.S.Bruner, A. Jolly, & K. Sylva [Eds.])
* develops higher motivation to learn and develops higher self-esteem (Weininger 1994)

Play is an integral part of a child’s being. It is the business of childhood, and it has a unique and
vital role in the whole educational process  (Weininger 1994).

— Canadian Association for Young Children (1996), p. 8

Printed in the B.C. Ministry of Education Primary Program Foundation Document.

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/primary_program/primary_prog.pdf    page 33