Introduction

The aim of this project is to determine the benefits heuristic play has on children’s emotional regulation. Heuristic play is such an inclusive experience, which for the purpose of this inquiry will enable research to focus on a small group of children with additional support needs. It takes into account practitioners’ knowledge and confidence of what heuristic play means and how heuristic play is facilitated within our setting. This project is supported by literature, ‘People Under Three. Young Children in Day Care’ (Goldschmied and Jackson, 1994). This provides background of heuristic play while highlighting the benefits, how to implement sessions, suggests resources and gives a deeper insight into the role of practitioners

Context

Within the setting, it is identified that 25% of children have additional support needs. Considering this and looking at previous data recorded, it was apparent there was a need for heuristic play in the 3 – 5 room and as I was based there, it made sense. Although heuristic play is aimed at children from birth to three as they become mobile, Goldschmied and Jackson (1994, pg.139) said, ‘Heuristic play can also be helpful to older children with learning difficulties, who can play with the material at their own level’.

It was clear there were lots of opportunities for exploration during play and encouraging older children’s individual schemas, although heuristic play was not strong part of our core provision. It was not clear whether this was due to a lack of adequate materials to support this or the knowledge and understanding of practitioners.

As I was passionate about heuristic play, helping to facilitate sessions outwith the setting, I was eager to share with other practitioners, to give them support. Most importantly, to provide quality experiences for children that would allow them to be curious, make their own choices and follow their interests without prompts from adults, ‘children were free to move, explore, play, create, participate and to learn at their own pace.’ (Tovey, 2020).

In order to fulfil the aims of this research project, I carefully considered the different methods that would allow me to identify and support the needs of children and practitioners within the setting. As I would be focussing on the 3 – 5 room, a small group of 5 children would be selected to participate along with all 10 practitioners from the room. It was decided that narrative observations would be used during heuristic play sessions to gain a holistic insight into their experience, engagement and give us a clear indication of children’s levels of wellbeing to process the overall impact. To enable me to support practitioners appropriately, a questionnaire would be used to identify their knowledge and at the end, a report will be created and a poster to allow dissemination of the project between the team for those who feel it would be supportive. As stated previously, heuristic play would become a new part of our core provision so it was vital to do an audit of resources to ensure we acquired a variety of materials in the setting.

Ethics

I ensured all staff within 3-5 room had given their consent. In my project, all children participating have additional support needs. This created some difficulty in ensuring there was consent from them, therefore I obtained written consent from their families on their behalf. However, as the children’s wellbeing is always our main priority, when each session was introduced it was extremely important for me to be aware and sensitive if children expressed any non-verbal cues that suggested they did not want to take part. In this instance, they did not have to join the session and could continue their play. In addition, if during a session a child became upset and could not be consoled, they were able to leave too. This enabled me to be even more conscious of children’s feelings and how a change to their routine by inviting them to a session could impact their wellbeing.