Discover the universal language of childhood!

"Play, Development, and Early Education" challenges the reader to discover what play is and how to incorporate it into a curriculum for children from toddlerhood through the primary grades. The nature of play as a mode for learning is examined through three core ideas: the quality of play in early childhood, play as a means of self-expression, and play as a channel of communication to achieving social sense. In addition, the text addresses the role of parents in supporting and elaborating play, the direct connections between research and play practice, and the value of play in relation to the total development (cognitive, affective, emotional, social, and physical) of "all" children.

Praise for "Play, Development, and Early Education"
""To say that I am impressed with this text would be making an understatement of the year. We in early childhood education have needed such a text for a long time.""
Dr. Ramona E. Patterson, South Louisiana Community College

""The authors have written an extensive account showing the scope and depth of children's play including the current trends, research, and informed opinions on the importance of childhood play.""
Regina C.M. Williams, Central Ohio Technical College

About the authors
James E. Johnson is Professor of Early Childhood Education at The Pennsylvania State University. His scholarly activities center around children's play, early childhood programs, and the educational role of the family. He has authored textbooks on early childhood programs and play.

James F. Christie is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Arizona State University. His researchinterests include children's play and early literacy development. He has co-authored two other textbooks with Allyn & Bacon on early literacy.

Francis Wardle studied play in Guatemala and Brazil, and is an international expert on outdoor play for young children. Currently Dr. Wardle teaches at Red Rocks Community College and the University of Phoenix--Colorado Campus, consults for Head Start, and writes both books, including an introductory early childhood education textbook for Allyn & Bacon, and articles for a variety of national publications.

This book covers a vast range of different philosophical and practical approaches to early education, from Free/Open schools and Waldorf education, to the Core Curriculum and the learning standards approach of the U.S. federal No Child Left Behind Act. By the early years it is meant the ages from infancy through the end of elementary school. While some of the approaches, such as Montessori and Reggio Emilia, are best known for the pre-school years, and the standards approach is best know for American K-12 education, there is more and more overlap and merging across early childhood and elementary education approaches, world-wide. All the approaches covered in this text can be seen in programs from infancy through the end of elementary school, even if each may focus on a certain age within this time frame. We are seeing major changes in infant, pre-kindergarten and elementary school education approaches, world-wide. These changes are the result of several major factors, including the extensive and powerful new brain research; globalisation of markets, ideas, and the Internet; rapid demographic shifts in many developed countries, and a move to more universal education in developing countries and more universal pre-school programs in developed countries. Thus, the focus of this book in describing a variety of current education approaches, with a detailed description of their historical and philosophical foundations and their current practice is very timely.