THE USE OF PLAY AS LEARNING STRATEGY

ABSTRACT

The study is focused on the use of play as learning strategy for skills development in early childhood education. The research work is geared towards developing children’s skills with effective use of play. Necessary literature were perused to elicit information for this study. The study makes use of qualitative method of data collection with questionnaire as research instrument. The population of the study was all the private primary schools in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State and sample size of 76 teachers was selected. Simple percentage method of data analysis was used while the data were duly tabularized for easy and clear presentation. The findings of this study show that there is lack of enough and adequate playground in most of the private schools where the research was carried out. Also, it was revealed that teachers are abreast with the use of play materials for skills development but it is unfortunate that play materials were not sufficiently available. The researcher recommended that teachers should be well informed of the need for them to improvise on different ways to use play in teaching children, government through the school board should equip schools with play materials and strictly monitor its usage both in private and government nursery and primary schools, spacious and well-equipped playgrounds should be a major requirement before a school is established.