Working With Young Children

[Guest]

hi every one,

new to the forum , just wandering if anyonecould throw light on heuristic play how does it meet the children 's needs

 

 

thanks

parerez7

Edited November 20, 2010 by parerez10

[SueFinanceManager]

Hi parerez10

 

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on making your first post

 

I am going to move your question from the LA forum area to the main forum area so lots more people will see it and hopefully you will get lots more answers

 

Best wishes

 

Sue

Admin team

[Guest]

Babies and toddlers have a natural curiosity for exploring objects which interest them. Young children enjoy ‘finding out’ about objects, what can be done with them, and how they can be manipulated. Once a discovery is made, such as one object fits into another or an object makes an interesting sound, a child will often repeat the action several times, encouraging concentration, cognitive skills (helping the brain to make connections and develop) and hand/eye co-ordination.

Elinor Goldschmied and Sonia Jackson coined the term heuristic play to describe providing children with the opportunity to find out about objects and what can be done with them

Heuristic play is a way of offering a group of children a range of objects to explore freely, with little adult intervention. This type of activity is particularly useful in encouraging young children to engage in an activity for more than a few minutes! The term heuristic is derived from the Greek word ‘eurisko’ which means ‘serves to discover or gain an understanding of.’

Provide children with opportunities to explore objects thoroughly. This is how young children collect the information needed to identify and later name objects.

 

elenor goldsmich writes a few books on this subject