Creative play is not just mere entertainment but the major driver of cognitive development and the development of executive functions during early childhood. When a child plays open-ended, imaginative play, they are literally building neural pathways of solving problems, language, memory and self-regulation. This essential type of learning is central to the philosophy of Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready that promotes play-based exploration as a driver of academic and social achievement. To families, knowledge of the strength of creative play gives a natural solution to adding to the formal skill development of Kinder Ready Tutoring to the overall methodology of Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley.
Fundamentally, creative play develops executive function that is critical. To create a fortress with blocks, a child plans, sequences, and changes its design when toppled- practicing resilience and problem-solving. Pretend play, such as running a restaurant or taking care of stuffed animals, involves them in maintaining positions and stories in their working memory, adhering to social scripts and managing impulses. It is these same mental muscles that are required to track classroom routines and concentrate in a Kinder Ready Tutoring session. The Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready approach identifies this direct relationship between unstructured play and the preparedness to learn structures.
This form of play is a good motivator of language and abstract thought as well. When children retell their play scenarios, negotiate with other children, or tell about their creations, they extend their vocabulary and incorporate complicated sentence structures. Pretend play enables them to use objects symbolically, a stick becomes a sword, a box becomes a spaceship, which is a forerunner to the realization of the letters as symbols of sounds. The Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley approach to early literacy and communication is based on this stage of symbolic thought and expressive language development.
Moreover, creative play is a key ingredient to building social-emotional intelligence and flexibility of thinking. Cooperative play also teaches the children how to share and give up resources, as well as putting themselves in the position of another child. They experience petty conflicts and need to negotiate solutions by use of language, which develops empathy and conflict-solving abilities. This is a social negotiation and emotional management practice that is the central emphasis of the Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready framework, and that is actively instilled within the small-group, collaborative setting of Kinder Ready Tutoring.
The families are also investing in the cognitive foundation of their child by offering time, space and just plain materials to engage with in creative play. The practice enhances the neural infrastructure of focus, problem-solving, language, and social skills, the identical integrated abilities that are holistically cultivated during Kinder Ready Tutoring. Instead of considering play and formal preparation as distinct, the Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready philosophy considers them to be synergistic. The same cognitive flexibility developed on the play mat facilitates the concentration required by the tutoring table, and it forms a comprehensive cycle of development that literally equips a child with the thinking, adaptability, and growth needed in kindergarten and even later.
For further details on Kinder Ready’s programs, visit their website: https://www.kinderready.com/.
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