Child development- A case study One of the popular ideas of child development and learning in the early childhood educational setting is engaging children in play activities. Play stimulates and improves cognitive, motor and socio-emotional skills of children. Children practice as well as gain mastery over their behaviors, through play. Play theories are broadly categorized into two groups: classical and modern play theories; the former group focuses on human energy, evolution, and instincts (Does play matter, 2013).

Observed levels of play

"Ted" in the striped shirt: Ted is involved in a cooperative form of play, and has cultivated the skills for interacting with others in order to play. He has well-developed communication skills (listening and speaking) and conveys ideas effectively, telling others what must be done. Play-related communication is the key skill in cooperative play.

"Adam" in the Celtic shirt: Adam also exhibits cooperative play, and aims to engaging in shared play with the other children. Play activities may be rather tough and Adam supports all the other children in the process.

"Eli" in the white shirt: Eli's play type is associative. He begins interacting with other children while at play, and may display momentary co-operation in between. He cultivates friendships with some of the kids, and prefers playing with them -- this preference does not extend to all. He is also shown to display parallel form of play; while he plays nearby other kids, he does not play with them, sticking to his spot; however, he does, on occasion, pass other kids playing blocks.

"Ben" in the gray shirt: Ben also displays associative kind of play -- he plays alone, but normally does what others are doing. For instance, he can lift bedside lamps. Ben appears to be looking for cooperative play with others (Borghans, Golsteyn & Zolitz, 2015).

Individual developmental skills

Innate Abilities -- This forms the crux of learning. They are inborn, genetically-defined talents and shortcomings, inherited from parents. All the boys show the capability of effective interaction and coordination, with minimal talk.

While motor skills are linked with movement and muscles (crawling, walking, talking, running, and handwriting), sensory abilities are in relation to sense organs (hearing, sight, and touch) and are in control of information reception. The boys, particularly Ted and Adam, talk to one another, and go about the place gathering blocks.
Cognitive Skills -- These skills enable one to process amassed sensory information (e.g., abilities of analysis, evaluation, information retention, experience recollection, action determination and comparison skills). While cognitive abilities do possess an intrinsic aspect, most of these skills are acquired by learning. Cognitive deficiencies arise when such development fails to occur naturally. Cognitive abilities manifest themselves in the way the boys arrange different parts within a space, particularly, the sofa, bed, tables and bathtub (Borghans et al., 2015; Does play matter, 2013).

How was the environment or area set up to encourage play? What could you do to the environment to help facilitate enhanced play skills and other developmental skills?

The setting is akin to learning centers, which prove to be efficient in managing and fostering development of abilities. Areas in the center explicitly convey to preschool children the activities taking place therein, and material available for stimulating play. Both unique and traditional centers support language interactions, experience building and socio-dramatic play depending on their comprehension levels. Inclusion of literacy material such as books, writing tools, and paper in the setting will provide opportunities to "read and write," as well (Ferguson, Cassells, MacAllister & Evans, 2013).

The environment can be made more enriching and apt for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers by first exploring their learning and development stages. Every individual stage is marked by distinctive characteristics which impact how individual kids experience their environment. Of particular import are relationships, since the basic mode of infant learning is via interactions with others.…