Exploring Play from Child Perspective

The importance of play in general is universally recognized in contemporary theoretical and empirical papers of early childhood education. The preschool teachers’ attitudes towards play and their roles in institutional early... [ view full abstract ]

The importance of play in general is universally recognized in contemporary theoretical and empirical papers of early childhood education. The preschool teachers’ attitudes towards play and their roles in institutional early childhood context are much more considered than children's. In this paper we gave voices to children aged four- to six-years-old attending a public preschools in Republic of Croatia and through individual interviews with the children gained children’s own view of play focus on the opportunity to choose their own activities, in company with their preschool teacher, friends or alone, in a preschool setting or at home. The results indicate that children want some more involvement of early childhood educators as same as parents in their everyday symbolic play. We presume that the results of this research could be useful for early childhood educators and theorists dealing with play.

Key words: play, child perspective, preschool teacher, parents