After months of appearing on the airwaves, students and faculty from Early Childhood Studies took their message of play-based learning into the community. In partnership with the Rogers TV program Insights: Towards Social Justice, they held an event at Brampton’s Khalsa Community School where they showed children and parents games they can make and play at home.
Since late-March members of the University of Guelph-Humber’s ECS program have been appearing on Insights: Towards Social Justice for a segment called Play Matters. In Play Matters, they talk about the benefits of play-based learning and how it aids in healthy child development. Each time, they showcase a different game or activity that can be done at home for very little cost.
“Play is how children express themselves and connect with others,” says Dr. Nikki Martyn, program head of ECS. “Because they may not have the words to speak all of their thoughts, play provides an outlet to understand and work through problems.”
At the Play Matters event Dr. Martyn, Assistant Program Head Elena Merenda, and a group of ECS students demonstrated the activities they’d been showing on their TV segments. With more than 200 children and their families in attendance, it was a chance to take the lesson of the program’s curriculum and show it to the community.
“In our ECS program, we try to create educators who can disrupt the field a little and see the child as a whole, and that includes their emotions, their health, their family and not just whether they have skills like counting or pattern recognition,” says Dr. Martyn. “This event was about connecting our theories to our practice and showing parents how they can integrate this kind of learning into their home lives.”
Though their capstone event is now complete, more Play Matters segments are still airing on Rogers TV.
Check the Rogers TV website to find local listings.
Learn more about UofGH’s Early Childhood Studies program.