Influence of play on social and emotional development of pre-school children in Kyangwithya zone, Kitui county

Abstract

Play is an essential part of children’s daily life and it promotes all round child development. Children develop physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually through play. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of play on social and emotional development of preschoolers in Kyangwithya Zone, Kitui County. Four research questions were formulated to guide the study. These were; to determine whether the availability of play materials influence children’s social and emotional development, to investigate how time allocation for play in pre schools affect social and emotional development in children, to establish whether the presence of the teacher or caregiver in children’s play affect children’s social and emotional development and lastly, to investigate how different types of play promote social and emotional skills development. The study employed a descriptive survey design which is used in preliminary and exploratory studies to allow researchers to gather information, summarize, present and interpret for the purpose of clarification. The population included 20 teachers, 250 children and 200 parents all residing in Kyangwithya Zone. The sample for the study was selected using stratified random technique and simple random technique, to involve both the public and the private pre schools. Questionnaires and Observation Checklist were used to collect data. The researcher conducted a pilot study in order to pre test the instruments just before the actual data collection. Additionally, in order to test the validity, items in the questionnaire were checked against the research objectives while reliability was checked through test re - test method. Before collection of any data from the respondents, an authorization letter was obtained from the university. After data collection, there was cross examination t o ascertain their accuracy, and then frequencies and percentages was used to present the data. It was also established that there was a strong positive correlation (r = +0.75) between Availability of play materials and social skills development of children in pre - schools and that the availability of play materials influence social and emotional development significantly (p<0.05) , there was a significant association (χ 2 (1, 4 ) = 65.423, p< 0.05) between play time and children social emotional development, there was a strong positive correlation r(1,6) = 0.73, P < 0.05, between presence of the teacher in children’s play and children’s social emotional skills development and there is a strong positive correlation r(1,6) = 0.663, P < 0.05 between play type and children’s social emotional skills development . The researcher recommended that the schools should provide more varieties of play material to pre - school children as this was likely to improve their social s kills and emotional development, t he ministry of Education should allow more time for outdoor and play activities in the pre - school timetable so as to expose the children to play more, t he p r e - school teachers should always be near the children during play so as to motivate the children and also protect them from dangerous play and that the pre - schools should increase the play varieties so as to motivate the children to enjoy playing.