Structured Play and Students With Disabilities

1. Structured Play and Students With Disabilities Evan Graham

2. What is Structured Play? • Structured play is exactly what it sounds like: allowing children to engage in the kind of activities they would enjoy participating in anyway, but with a focus on learning. • Play is the natural learning language for all children. • The desire for play is universal among humans.

3. Play is How all Children Learn • Children use play to discover how the world around them works, and how to find their place in it. • Play teaches children how to express themselves, relate to others, solve problems, and take the roles of others. • Play is a unique form of learning in that it stimulates visual, auditory, and tactile learning equally.

4. Children don’t see it as teaching, only a source of fun. • It encourages children to think for themselves and come to conclusions on their own, rather than simply being taught. • It disrupts tedium and makes for a more engaging class experience. • It gives children an incentive to continue learning outside the classroom Benefits of Structured Play

5. Challenges of Structured Play • Keeping it structured: it is easy for children to lose focus. • Keeping it educational: if it doesn’t lead students to learn, it isn’t teaching. • Keeping it friendly: Competition can get in the way of learning. • Supplementing it with more traditional forms of teaching.

6. Structured Play in Language Arts • In my field of Language Arts, there is no shortage of ways structured play can fit into the curriculum. Whether it be dramatic readings, writing and delivering poems, or creating stories with the students, play is ideal for fitting into a standard English course. My personal area of greatest interest is drama and plays, which I would love to integrate into any curriculum, especially if working with exceptional students

7. Where to Go from Here • Despite the fact that in my research I was able to find many websites on the topic of structured play for exceptional students, I could find surprisingly little in the way of research on the subject. Given the number of apparently successful programs that exist I can only conclude that research has been done, but I have yet to find much of it. I shall continue searching for valid research in the areas of structured play as a tool for reaching students with exceptionalities.

8. Conclusion • I’ve always felt that the typical lecture/ homework heavy curriculums that permeate the school system are too limited in scope and ability to teach. Structured play seems to be an underutilized tool for educating students, and its universality renders it a critical aspect in teaching students with exceptionalities, whether they are in special education or mainstreamed, whether they are handicapped or gifted.

9. Citations • Morris, Darrel. "Benefits of Structured Play." www.kidspeedcamp.com. N.p., 2005. Web. 27 Apr. 2010 • Parker, Douglas. "Recess and Play Are Vital." www.suite101.com. N.p., 21 Oct. 2007. Web. 27 Apr. 2010 • Peter, Melanie. "Drama: Narrative pedagogy and socially challenged children." British Journal of Special Education 36.1 (2009): 9-16. Web. 2 Mar. 2010. • D. Sherratt and M. Peter. London: David Fulton, 2002. ISBN 1085346-697-2 • Topic: Developing play-drama as an effective way to engage children with severe autism • Widdows, Joy: "Drama as an Agent of Change: Drama behaviour and students with emotional and behavioural difficulties." Research in Drama Education 1.1 (1996): 65-78. Web. 2 Mar. 2010