engleski

Mothers´ perception on importance of play in early childhood

Play is a free, spontaneous, general and complex children’s activity through which they express their emotions, needs and difficulties. While playing, they practice acquired skills and also learn new ones. They develop curiosity through experiments and solve problems by trial and error. Play also helps them to prepare for future by playing in those activities for which they are not yet prepared. Through play, communication, language and motor skills, imagination, symbolic thought and intuition develop. The aim of this qualitative study was to gain insight into the parents' perception of the importance of play in early childhood. Study participants were mothers of children with neurological risk factors (5 male and 3 female, aged between 2 and 3 years). The educational structure of respondents included 4 mothers with university degree, and 4 mothers with high school degree. Data was collected and analyzed by qualitative methodology (focus groups). This research gives valuable insight into parents’ thoughts on the importance of children's play. It notes the positive attitude towards the play, but at the same time a lack of understanding why the play is really important, and how to play actively with children. The results indicate that parents separate play from learning and perceive it as a non-learning activity

children’s play, parents’ perception

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