Summary: | During our university studies we learned about the importance of play for children'sdevelopment. During play children practice many elements, such as social andcommunication skills and they learn easier. This because play is fun and they use theirimagination and creativity to develop their play, creating new games - this isimportant for their learning and development. Therefore, we know that play is anexcellent teaching tool, but I wonder what do pedagogues think of play?I also wonder what factors influence children's play and how important the "oldfashionedplay" or play without modern toys such as electronic toys or gadgets are forchildren's development? Therefore, I travelled to a small village in India, where there is no modern technology,to carry out this study about play. Over the course of ten days I observed childrenplaying and interviewed three teachers in a private school to study how thecircumstances make children create their own toys to play with, and how importantthis play and these toys are for the children's' lives and development. As a result ofthis study I came to the conclusion that economic, religious, cultural and genderfactors influence children's play in this village in India. Creating their own toysdevelops children´s creativity and fine motor skills, and helps them socialize whilethey are teaching each other how to create the toy. In a multicultural society like ours in Sweden, we have many first- and secondgenerationimmigrants in our schools, therefore it is important to learn and understandhow other cultures play and how we as pedagogues see and adopt this kind of playand different games to teach. In this study I want to show another perspective of playto understand our own play in Sweden. I believe that this multicultural perspectivewill only enrich our profession.
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