Heuristic play offers vast learning opportunities for children of all ages, items used in heuristic play allow children to use their exploratory and imagination skills. Children will explore each item and us these to possibly represent another object. Many of the resources used are everyday objects some of which may be recycled reclaimed materials,, children will spend a considerable of time exploring the items and incorporating them into their play.
In Early Years heuristic play covers all aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage, practitioners watch and observe children during these play situations and build on from their interests. Heuristic play is one of the easiest types of play to implement into every day practice, displaying the resources in an attractive manner will help attract children to the resources and begin the learning process
Don’t forget to share your ideas about this types of play with parents as they can easily introduce this at home. Children will demonstrate many types of learning, for babies they will begin to develop their palmer grasp and later on develop more gross and fine motor skills. Older children will enjoy using the materials in a different way to the younger ones, they may introduce more creative and imaginative play ideas.
A presentation has been put together looking at the benefits of Heuristic play in the Early Years
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