Developmental milestones of children and learning through play in Ethiopian early childhood care and education centers

Abstract

It is a widely accepted fact that a good quality preschool has the potential to break inter-generational poverty cycles. In relation to this, the Dakar Frame work of Action indicates that working in preschool education has to be the major concern of all nations of the world. One aspect of increased quality for preschool is applying Learning Through Play (LTP), a concept used, in education and psychology, to describe how children can learn to make sense of the world around them. Through play, children can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environment which can help them create images in their mind that can do with their feelings, thoughts and ideas. The main objective of this work was to examine the experiences of LTP and if children achieved their developmental milestones. To this end, a mixed methods research approach was used and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 105 preschool facilitators and 29 curriculum/education experts in 46 selected preschool centers in the country. Although the scarcity of indoor and outdoor playing materials stood as the critical problem in most government-owned preschool centers, most of the facilitators and curriculum experts were aware of the importance of LTP and those, who were familiar with the curriculum, asserted that it ensured LTP. Inconsistencies were observed in the use of play for learning, despite the fact that most of the respondents were aware of its relevance. The study also revealed that most children accomplished more than 80% of the developmental milestones set for their physical and emotional developments. However, they failed to achieve important cognitive, language and social developmental milestones. As indoor plays are the least understood and traditional or locally-made play materials are less used, capacity building trainings on how to implement LTP and prepare and use traditional play materials from the locally available resources is recommended. Best experiences in this regard should be shared and replicated.

Keywords: LTP, developmental milestones, early childhood care and education