The environment surrounding young children changes greatly around age three

When considering the development of play, the first point to understand is that the environment surrounding young children changes greatly around age three This is the key point.

Before age three, children often spend much of their time at home in an environment centered on their parents, particularly their mothers, and their play tends to develop within relationships with familiar adults. After entering nursery school, however, children increasingly interact with peers of the same and different ages and spend their days in the collective, organized educational environment of the nursery school.

This transition is not merely a change of location. For the child, it means that play partners、 places to play、 content of play the range of experiences and relationships expands substantially. Nursery school therefore becomes an important setting that can provide diverse play experiences that may be difficult to obtain within the home alone.

Play shifts from something “provided by others” to something “chosen by the child”

One important developmental change in early childhood is that decisions about the content and type of play gradually something provided by others from something chosen through one's own judgment changes into this form.

Young children often play within activities prepared by parents or caregivers. As they grow, however, they begin to choose activities themselves, invite friends, assign roles, and sometimes create rules. This is more than a change in how they play; it reflects development of autonomy and formation of social skills is closely related to these factors.

Nursery schools and childcare professionals therefore need to create environments in which children can choose their own play. Rather than providing play unilaterally, adults should support children so that they can choose, experiment, and engage through trial and error.

Developmental changes around age three identified by prior research

Prior research has shown major changes around age three in the types of play and the living circumstances surrounding play. For example, during this period, expansion of interpersonal relationships and expansion of the range of activities several developmental changes can be observed, and the nature of play itself changes according to the child’s developmental stage.

Supporting the development of play therefore does not simply mean allowing children to play a great deal. It requires understanding developmental changes and supporting play experiences appropriate to each stage. This is where the professional expertise of nursery schools and childcare professionals is essential.

Childcare professionals need to understand the process of “restructuring knowledge”

A crucial point in childcare is understanding that children do not begin with fully formed knowledge. Through experience, they gradually refine individual elements of knowledge and relate them to one another while restructuring one's system of knowledge exists.

This process does not proceed in a straight line; it advances over a long period through repeated trial and error. A childcare professional who understands this should avoid expecting young children immediately to understand concepts in the same way as adults or to develop linearly over a short period.

What is more important is providing sufficient time for the child’s internal process of examination is essential. Through play, children learn by assigning their own meaning to what they have seen, felt, and tried. Childcare professionals should support these internal processes carefully without rushing them.

Making use of prior knowledge can lead to effective childcare practice

Even before receiving systematic instruction, young children acquire a great deal of prior knowledge prior knowledge through everyday experience. Things seen and heard in family and community life, impressions gained through interaction with others, and play experiences accumulate as knowledge in the child’s own form.

One important competence of childcare professionals is the ability to use that prior knowledge being able to retrieve it in appropriate situations in new learning. Connecting what a child already knows and has experienced with new content makes deeper understanding more likely.

This does more than improve learning efficiency. When children see that what they already know and have experienced can be used in childcare activities, they develop greater intellectual curiosity and initiative interest and initiative. Supporting the development of play therefore also means respecting children not as passive recipients, but as active subjects who already know, feel, and think about many things.

What are the basic roles of childcare professionals in supporting the development of play?

Based on the points above, the basic role of nursery schools and childcare professionals begins with creating an environment in which children can play with a sense of security A sense of security enables children to become interested in their surroundings and engage in play on their own initiative.

Next, childcare professionals need to understand each child’s developmental stage and support play appropriate to that stage. Support should take account of changes in the environment around age three, expanding relationships, and the development of agency.

Childcare professionals should also understand that children’s knowledge formation is not linear and should provide time for trial and error and internal reflection They also deepen children’s understanding and interest by drawing out prior knowledge and connecting it to new experiences.

In other words, the role of childcare professionals is not to control play, but to professionally support the process through which children develop by means of play This is the key point.

Summary

To consider the basic roles of nursery schools, teachers, and childcare professionals in supporting the development of play, it is first necessary to understand that the environment surrounding young children changes greatly around age three. As children move from home-centered life to group settings, the content of play, relationships, and range of activity expand substantially.

In that process, childcare professionals are expected to support children's self-directed play、 understanding the process by which knowledge is restructured、 using prior knowledge to connect children to new learning and therefore have an important role.

For young children, play is learning itself and a central activity of development. Nursery schools and childcare professionals should therefore do more than simply let children play; they should serve as professionals who support children’s growth through play and fulfill that role accordingly.