Why active play is so important

Teachers have a tough job. Classroom behaviour is getting harder to manage which make learning outcomes more difficult to achieve. It only takes a couple of disruptive children to have a significant impact on the learning of the whole class.

Whilst some children have recognised behavioural difficulties many others can present challenging behaviour that is severe enough to disrupt a class for a session, but is not frequent enough or severe enough to warrant more formal intervention. There are ways of minimising this sporadic behaviour – clear expectations and boundaries are vital, but so is the opportunity to play.

Providing children with opportunities to engage in active play has many benefits. Research has shown that children who do daily physical exercise are more able to concentrate in the classroom. All children need active play and with the increase of screen-based entertainment at home, schools have become more important in the fight against obesity and anti-social behaviour.

The development of all children, and particularly those with special educational needs can be greatly enhanced by appropriate play opportunities. For example, children with ADD and ADHD* can be very disruptive in a classroom. This is exacerbated when they are not given the opportunity to get rid of their excess energy. Many of the active games encourage social development so children with disorders on the autism spectrum will also gain confidence and social skills in fun, non-threatening ways.

It is great to work with Edventure to help make teachers’ lives easier. To this end, I have identified a wide range of skills children develop through play and have divided them into the standard categories of social, cognitive and physical development. I have also included ‘multi-sensory development’ which spans all 3 categories. Many of the products can be used in ways which enhance a much wider range of skills but the categorisation will provide a valuable reference point for the teacher.

The areas of development have been assigned a colour-coded symbol which makes it much easier for the teacher to see at first glance in which category the product falls. I have then identified the specific skill sets and these can be found next to each product in the catalogue. For a more detailed explanation of the category headings please click on Skills Categorisation.

I hope that by creating a framework, I have gone some way to clarifying the rationale behind each of the products and making your choices easier. After all, by providing engaging games and activities for children, teachers will see happier, healthier children and better classroom behaviour, resulting in improved learning outcomes.

Dr Amanda Gummer PhD, BA (Hons), PCHE

Amanda was an associate lecturer in Child Development with the Open University until the end of 2006. She is currently involved as an advisory member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Scientific Research in Learning and Education. She is an active member of both the National Toy Council and the Play Research network, presenting a paper at the prestigious ITRA world congress in July 2008.

In December 2008 the team at Edventure commissioned Amanda to categorise their range to provide teachers with an easy reference guide to the main skills that children develop using their products. In her own words Amanda describes the ever-increasing need for active play within the playground and the type of skills that can be acquired by ‘learning through play’.