Title: Play Always Matters: It matters even more in infant classes now

Abstract

As teacher educators in a challenging world crisis, we are reconceptualising and revalidating our personal theories and ideologies of early childhood education. But is it causing us to change and adapt our practices to be more responsive and inclusive of the child’s voice in our schools? Initial findings from Covid 19 research suggests that children missed opportunities for play with peers which negatively impacts on social and emotional learning and language development (O’Keeffe C, McNally S. (2021). Play naturally draws self-identity and self-expression from the child, where the child’s own voice emerges. Play enables children to recreate and rehearse their personal life experiences and cultivate their place in their family, community, and peer group. It is time for a conscious ‘pause to reflect’ on the play-based event called the ‘Aistear Hour’ in mainstream primary infant classrooms. Recent published findings from Sloan, et. al. (2021) indicated that while teachers were generally enthusiastic about play and playful approaches ‘there was still some uncertainty over the approaches to teaching and learning advocated by Aistear and the lack of specialised training in such approaches’ Sloan, et. al. (2021, p. 30).