Building Literacy Opportunities into Children's Block Play What Every Teacher Should Know

Wellhousen, Karyn; Giles, Rebecca M.

doi:10.1080/00094056.2006.10521350

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The fact that the guided play condition elicits more spatial language suggests that experimental and educational interventions may follow such a model to increase the frequency of spatial language children hear and come to use on their own. Pre‐K and kindergarten teachers may not fully recognize the educational value of block play (National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC] 1997; Park, Chae, & Foulks, 2008; Wellhousen & Keoff, 2000; Zacharos, Koliopoulos, Dokomaki, & Kassoumi, 2007). These finding bear direct relevance to implementation in classrooms, in which a teacher may use goal‐directed block play as a means of introducing and acting out spatial concepts and relationships.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Block Talk: Spatial Language During Block Play

Ferrara

Hirsh‐Pasek

Newcombe

et al. 2011

Mind Brain and Education

176

166

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Spatial skills are a central component of intellect and show marked individual differences. There is evidence that variations in the spatial language young children hear, which directs their attention to important aspects of the spatial environment, may be one of the mechanisms that contributes to these differences. To investigate how play affects variations in language, parents and children were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: free play with blocks, guided play, or play with preassembled structures (Study 1). Parents in the guided play condition produced significantly higher proportions of spatial talk than parents in the other two conditions, and children in the guided play condition produced significantly more spatial talk than those in the free play condition. Study 2 established baselines of spatial language during activities not involving spatial materials. Proportions of spatial words were lower than those in any of the conditions of Experiment 1. In sum, interaction with blocks naturally elicits elevated levels of spatial language, especially in the context of guided play, suggesting simple-to-execute educational interventions.Spatial skills are a crucial component of human intellect. They allow us to encode information about small and large-scale objects-such as the location of our watch under a book, or which way to turn to reach a destination. They also allow us to mentally transform this information, such as imagining what we might see if approaching an intersection from an alternative direction. Spatial skills provide a foundation for learning in the disciplines of science,

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Block Talk: Spatial Language During Block Play

Ferrara

Hirsh‐Pasek

Newcombe

et al. 2011

Mind Brain and Education

176

166

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, the ways that teachers explain and propose OE activities to children, recognize their natural need to move and experiment and support their attempts, sensorial experiences, and actions in the outdoor context are critical to success (Nelson, 2006; Gehris et al, 2014). However, OE is rarely held as a priority by many teachers (McClintic and Petty, 2015) and they tend to give less time and attention to outdoor activities compared with indoor activities (Wellhousen, 2002). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outdoor Education in Italian Kindergartens: How Teachers Perceive Child Developmental Trajectories

2018

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Outdoor Education (OE) refers to organized experiential education that takes place in the outdoor, characterized by action-centered and thematic learning processes. Literature shows how OE may have beneficial effects on different areas of child development, including cognitive abilities, social skills, and motor development. This relationship is not necessarily linear, but moderated by different variables. Until now, few studies have examined, using rigorous methods, the role of OE in children's development and studies of preschool aged children remain lacking. The current study aimed to explore teachers' perceptions of children's developmental trajectories over 2 school years, investigating whether teachers' perceptions differed between two kindergartens, one characterized by a consolidated OE approach and the other one characterized by a more traditional method of education. The sample was composed of 20 teachers, evaluating 93 children aged 3–5 (M = 46.95 months, SD = 6.73; 42 males): 13 teachers were from a traditional kindergarten (Traditional Group- TG) and evaluated 52 children; 7 teachers were from an OE kindergarten (Outdoor Group—OE) and observed 41 children. All the teachers completed the Kuno Beller Developmental Tables (Mantovani, 1995), in order to describe specific child developmental areas in 4 consecutive moments during 2 school years (T1-T2: January-May 2014; T3-T4: October 2014-May 2015). The 20 teachers also completed the “Outdoor Activities/Trips Diary,” an instrument created for this study to collect qualitative data on the characteristics of outdoor activities. Results showed that, in all the developmental areas, OE teachers perceived higher scores over time were found for the Outdoor Group compared to the Traditional one. Specifically, GLM ANOVAs Repeated Measures revealed a significant interaction of the 2 variables Time and Groups (p < 0.001): contrast analyses showed that OE children, compared to the TG children, were perceived by their teachers with higher levels in all developmental areas at T1 and T2, but not at T3 and T4. The findings suggest that the OE activites, compared to indoor ones and according to teachers' perceptions, offer greater opportunities to promote the child's development at different levels, especially when children are younger. Future studies are recommended analyzing possible moderating variables and long term effects of OE.

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“…In preschool settings, children are provided with wooden unit blocks of varying shapes and sizes for the purposes of free play; children are also sometimes asked to copy a model or a picture, with more difficult tasks requiring symbolic representation ( Otsuka and Jay, 2016 ). Such building activity is, more often than not, recognized as an effective way to promote children’s overall development ( Rogers, 1985 ), literacy skills ( Isbell and Raines, 1991 ; Wellhousen and Giles, 2005 ; Cohen and Uhry, 2011 ), social skills ( Cohen and Uhry, 2007 ), mathematic skills ( Casey et al, 2012 ) and spatial skills ( Ramani et al, 2014 ; Cohen and Emmons, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Individual Differences, Types of Model and Social Settings on Block Building Performance among Chinese Preschoolers

Zhu

Meng

et al. 2018

Front. Psychol.

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Children’s block building performances are used as indicators of other abilities in multiple domains. In the current study, we examined individual differences, types of model and social settings as influences on children’s block building performance. Chinese preschoolers (N = 180) participated in a block building activity in a natural setting, and performance was assessed with multiple measures in order to identify a range of specific skills. Using scores generated across these measures, three dependent variables were analyzed: block building skills, structural balance and structural features. An overall MANOVA showed that there were significant main effects of gender and grade level across most measures. Types of model showed no significant effect in children’s block building. There was a significant main effect of social settings on structural features, with the best performance in the 5-member group, followed by individual and then the 10-member block building. These findings suggest that boys performed better than girls in block building activity. Block building performance increased significantly from 1st to 2nd year of preschool, but not from second to third. The preschoolers created more representational constructions when presented with a model made of wooden rather than with a picture. There was partial evidence that children performed better when working with peers in a small group than when working alone or working in a large group. It is suggested that future study should examine other modalities rather than the visual one, diversify the samples and adopt a longitudinal investigation.

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Building Literacy Opportunities into Children's Block Play What Every Teacher Should Know

Cited by 10 publications

References 4 publications

Block Talk: Spatial Language During Block Play

Block Talk: Spatial Language During Block Play

Outdoor Education in Italian Kindergartens: How Teachers Perceive Child Developmental Trajectories

The Impact of Individual Differences, Types of Model and Social Settings on Block Building Performance among Chinese Preschoolers

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