Abstract:

From a neuroscience perspective, the period from birth to 7 years is perceived as the critical time for the enormous holistic development of children. In these early years, the developmental learning concepts, skills, and attitudes that young children acquire lay the foundation for lifelong learning. Hence, young children from an early age should be nurtured to ensure that developmental defects and delays are identified at an early age to provide support and intervene where necessary. It is for this reason that Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is regarded as an investment of human capital as it introduces young children to excellent quality early learning opportunities contributing to their development and well-being later in life. In response to this, the South African government through its ECCE policy and supporting frameworks provided access to quality ECCE services to young children from birth to four years. The aim is to ensure that a solid foundation is laid for young children to succeed. This is because when young children develop, affectionate, safe, and conducive environments that promote playful caregiving may contribute to optimistic socio-emotional development. Play has a significant part in the development of children as it also a learning experience. Children’s personality development is enhanced through play as young children learn and master linguistic, social, and cognitive skills. With both free and structured play, children become creative and flexible. With free play, the child is the one leading the play experience where rules and boundaries are set by children. Free play can also be referred to as child-led play. While structured play is often adult-led, guided with planned activities to achieve a particular learning milestone. Play-based learning should balance with both free and structured play to enhance children’s thinking levels. During free play, children become industrious and autonomous when playing and this promotes their independence, well-being, and creativity. In an ECCE context, during play-based learning, both indoor and outdoor spaces should be monitored to ensure safety and hygiene for effective learning to take place. The standardized ECCE curriculum should promote play-based pedagogies to be implemented in an ECCE context for meaningful learning experiences. Through play-based learning, young children may discover, test, and solve problems in playful ways and as they connect with others self-advocacy, leadership, and teamwork skills are mastered. These are the skills that ECCE practitioners need to ensure that young children master. This paper adopted Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to examine the manner in which several milieus contribute to a children’s play and their effect on how children grow and mature. The theoretical framework was employed as a lens to view pedagogical fundamentals of play-based learning in ECCE centres.

Keywords:

Curriculum, ECCE, ECCE practitioner, Guided play, Holistic development, Pedagogy, Play-based learning, Socio-emotional, Standardised curriculum.