As Cat Stevens sang and wrote many years ago, “let the children play” Learning in the Early Childhood Years. I continue to be surprised and disappointed that some (only a few thankfully) in education in recent years have shifted significantly away from upholding rich purposeful play as the major means of early learning and life experience. In addition, there has been a shift in thinking that in order to not patronise or underestimate the strengths and skills and understandings of children, we have gone almost to the other end of the continuum! The assumption being that children as young as 3 and 4 years can not only understand and comprehend the complexities of schooling and life, they can now determine what they need to learn before they even get to school!

There is such a paradox at the current time. So many schools throughout Australia that we are working with are implementing an enriched learning environment through active investigation alongside explicit teaching of literacy and numeracy; and yet others are now advocating to early childhood programs that more formalised and structured literacy and numeracy should be embedded into their programs. Why? Because children said they wanted it!!!!

We have witnessed a wonderful “push up” curriculum in the past few years with schools continuing to reach great outcomes and academic achievements alongside more happy engaged and purposeful children through the play based approach for part of each day. This change in early years curriculum has helped to provide a more seamless and consistent curriculum between early childhood programs and the first years of school. A smoother and easier transition, adapting to the environment, oral language, and engagement (particularly for boys), have all significantly increased as indicated by research conducted in schools implementing the Australian Developmental Curriculum.

I wonder why some academics want to ask children what they would have liked before they started school? Given that every child in the world is told by endless adults that when you go to school you will learn to read and write, it is not surprising that children will respond with, “to read and write”, “to know letters and numbers”. If you ask a child in a lolly factory what they want they will usually respond with,” lots of lollies or chocolate”. That doesn’t translate into adults giving children what they want just because they ask for it. Is it still not safe to assume that adults are in children’s lives to scaffold, to provide opportunities and to help the learning process in ways that are appropriate to children’s development and experience? Adults do not have to do everything a child says they want them to do, or to give children everything they say they want. Even my past university students as adults indicated they wanted certain content in their courses which was at times appropriate and at other times, inappropriate.

Young children in their early childhood years need to be immersed in rich literacy and numeracy experiences through rich play based curriculum. Sometimes this will be totally spontaneous and at other times introduced and scaffolded by the adult through stories, games, songs, rhymes and rich oral language experiences. This country has a major problem at the current time with low oral language as children enter school. It is my opinion that early childhood programs need to worry less about children formally writing and reading when they are 3 or 4 years of age, and much more about children speaking, listening, responding and acquiring new vocabulary, (the most important part of early literacy); and alongside those skills, developing a positive sense of who they are, problem solving, independence and thinking skills. Methodologically flawed research that advocates more formalised instruction in reading and writing in the early childhood years with 3 and 4 year olds is dangerous and misleading.

• Rich print environments? Yes.
• Rich oral language? yes.
• Opportunities for modelling of writing and reading? Yes.
• Formalised instruction with recitation of the alphabet or (worse still), letter land training for 3 and 4 year olds? NO.

Let’s go back to brain research, child development and common sense. In Australia we continue to have one of the youngest age entries into school. That doesn’t translate into great literacy scores when compared with the rest of the world. That is predominantly because the children are so young.

Children in their early childhood program most need rich, play based curriculum. I wonder sometimes if some educators have forgotten that play based curriculum is rigorous, retains explicit instruction and scaffolding but is pitched for the developmental and neurological stages of children aged 3 and 4 years. Life is about enjoying the stage of life you are currently in. Being provided with opportunities to learn at the appropriate stage of life you are at and not endlessly being prepared for what may happen next. Often what may happen next isn’t even appropriate or necessary.

Do we prepare children by implementing inappropriate practices just because they may face them in the future?

Long live play based curriculum and let’s hope this latest spate of attempting to structure and formalise reading and writing in preschool because “children reportedly said they wanted it”, disappears as quickly as it arrived.

The world has enough rush, hurry and anxiety about what may happen in the future. Let us provide the best practice for young children in their early childhood programs through play and not fall into the trap of thinking play is not structured, directed, scaffolded or planned or that it excludes literacy or numeracy. I used to have to talk that through with parents so they understood the richness of the play based curriculum in early childhood programs. Now it seems we have to remind other professionals of the same thing!!!