THE IMPORTANCE OF GAMES AND PLAY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Abstract

“Childhood gardens” and initial education institutions have a distinctive brand that differentiates them from schools: they are places where children play. While at school the child learns teaching, which is the transmission of information and knowledge, initial education understands that the child learns playing. Playing is the process that nature has created for small human beings to discover the world, interact with it, and appropriate their laws. It is undoubtedly the main means of access, encounter, dialogue and interaction with the outside world and, in turn, allows the construction of the inner world of the child. A few years ago, initial education was seen as a preparation for basic education, it was accessible only to some children and was not part of compulsory education. Therefore, there was no room in the education budget, it was not one of the goals of those who draw education programs, nor to a large extent aroused the interest of the researchers. With the discovery, by various sciences, of the importance of the early years of life in the formation of intelligence and the construction of cognitive, social and affective structures, the interest of governments was brought to initial formation and it became the first stage of basic education . Thus, it was elected as a general objective to “analyze play as a tool for development in early childhood education”, through a survey conducted at a school in Bahia, through a questionnaire applied to teachers. It is concluded that the importance of standardizing the provision of care and education in early childhood is that their proven positive effects on children are closely linked to their quality.