Human beings were born with the ability to play, an instinctive competence which facilitates our learning. Children’s play is often mistaken as time-wasting and indulgence and its role in learning have often been neglected. The aim of this course is to re-shape students’ understanding of play, especially free-play, and to highlight the value of play in children’s growth and its functions in learning. It will also explore different types of play and analyse their roles in children’s learning and development from various perspectives, re-state teachers’ role in children’s play, as well as demonstrate the relationship among play, personality and the realisation of children’s potentials.

CILO-1: Understand the main theories of play and its impact on children's cognitive, emotional, social, language and physical development. CILO-2: Understand the characteristics and course of the development of child play behaviors. CILO-3: Acquire the observation method of child play. CILO-4: Understand the role of adults and their strategies used in chlid play. CILO-5: Understand the relationship between play and toys. CILO-6: Be able to design child play activities by applying play theories in teaching.