Parents' understandings and practices regarding play and learning

Abstract

Parents of young children are often unaware of the general importance of play in children’s development and their own roles in children’s play. Lack of leisure, lack of space, the COVID-19 pandemic, Early Childhood Centre teacher communication and use of media and digital toys for children, have affected and reduced children’s free play. Drawing on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development as an underpinning theoretical framework, this paper explores the contestations of play and learning using parents’ voices. The study used open-ended qualitative questionnaires to extract parents’ feedback on their understanding and practices of play with 3–4-year-old children. The researchers used convenient purposive sampling and selected 6 parents of young children from middle-income families in Pretoria, South Africa. In a time of schoolification of the early childhood years, the findings highlight that although parents believed that play was essential, they set up structured learning environments for their 3–4-year-old children at home. The study accentuated the importance of parent intervention programmes so that parents are aware of how to engage in play with their children appropriately, and what the appropriate adult roles for extending and enhancing play are.