Introduction:

Education is the backbone for any nation and children are future of a country. Proper education for children is very important for any children. But this education process must need to be productive and effective and designed in structured ways for prosperity of nation. To make education process effective through play and learning planners need to plan according to theoretical approaches practiced long time in play and learning. Not every child in a school or learning activity set is same. Some children are with special needs and need to be teaching carefully. Several types of assessment can be conduct to find out these children with special needs and teach them. Planning play and learning activities for children will be more productive by preparing them by consulting with parents and professionals. Finally results should be recorded for future uses with further education planning for a nation to be more developed. Wrong education in early stages can ruin the future of a child. So high care, in designing early learning activities need to be taken for development of children and nation.

Assessment criteria 1.1- Describe the development, over time, of theoretical approaches to play and learning.

Several theories in play and learning have developed time to time but no theories were good enough to describe it. Many theories for development in educational practices for children are being used during 20^th century. Important theories among them are maturational theory, behaviourist theory, psychoanalytic theory, constructivist theory, socio-historical theory, ecological theory, ecological theory, environmentalist theory and many others.

Home

Maturational Theory:

This theory was developed by Arnold Gesell in 1925. This theory was developed, based on 3 assumptions,

• Development base is biological,
• Type of body,
• Ectomorph
• Endomorph
• Mesomorph
• Alternating between good and bad years.

These assumptions are related with personality development that influenced teaching and reading method of children in mid nineteenth century. By this theory children were not ready for study until 6 years old mentally. Activities in school were developed for unready children to help them to be ready for reading. This process is still in practices known as preschool.

Behaviourist Theory:

Behaviourist theory was developed by Skinner and Bijou. This theory influenced special education programmes in schools. Its main theme is role of environment in children’s education and development. Teacher uses this theory for those who found with difficulties in on-going environment. Major objective of this theory was not left any children behind.

Psychoanalytic Theory:

From the very start of 1920 this theory was used for analysing behaviour disorder of children, developed by Freud. In this theory, play therapy was recommended for children accompanied by parents or children. This theory was very useful for children with special needs.