DISCUSSION: CHILD-CENTERED LEARNING AND PLAY FOR EVERY CHILD

In Week 4, you wrote a letter to the editor designed to educate members of your community about the critical role of child-centered curriculum and play in children’s development and learning.

For this week’s Discussion, review at least three of your colleagues’ letters to the editor posted in the Doc Sharing area. Focus on the ways their arguments complemented and differed from your own and each others’ and served as strong advocacy efforts.

In addition, review this week’s media segments and carefully consider how child-centered practices may differ and need to be adapted based on the developmental continuum. Based on your review, you will analyze the ways in which effective child-centered practices including play support positive learning outcomes in children from infants through primary ages.

By Day 3

Post:

• A brief summary of the ways in which the letters to the editor you reviewed brought up similar and differing arguments, and why you felt certain reasoning was most effective as an advocacy effort
• An explanation, based on the media segments and citing examples, of the benefits of child-centered, play-based, and discovery learning for each age/development level—infants/toddlers, preschoolers, and primary-age children