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THE JOYS OF SERIOUS PLAY



Mary, Sam's grandma, recently conducted a workshop entitled "Doing & Discovering: The vital role of play, in living, loving and learning." The audience was teachers and administrators from Early Head Start programs (a program for low income children from birth to age three) across New York State. Mary is an infant-toddler specialist, particularly as it relates to children with disabilities, and she often makes conference presentations. Lately she's been using Sam. A lot.

For this workshop she used a series of photos that I, Sam's grandpa, took of Sam watering our plants. The purpose was to demonstrate visually how an infant/toddler learns new skills.

So here's the set up.

Sam wanted to water the plants. Insisted on it. Previously he had always used his child-sized watering container. But recently he learned the concept, and the word, "big." So for the first time he insisted on using Grandma's big watering container. Thereby setting new challenges for himself.

He got the watering container, and first needed to fill it with water. He kept pointing at the sink until I got the message and put it in the sink for him.

This is where our story begins. Sam needed to solve this problem through trial and error.

It was clear that the sink option wasn't going to work.

But there was another option. I obligingly turned on the water for him. His job was to fill the container. A bit difficult.

So he only had one viable option. Messy but effective.

Now that it was filled, he carried it into the hallway. Because he had filled it so high, he was gaining a firsthand understand of the concept of 'heavy'.

"Oh, gee, what happens if I turn it this way? Wow, look at that."

Then the realization dawns: "I've got a problem. No more water in the container."

So back to the source. Still messy, still effective.

Success!

Uh, oh, look a bit closer at where the spout is going.

Missed again.

So he repeats the whole process, and this time really does succeed.

And this photo shows the intensity of his concentration after successfully meeting the challenge. As Mary pointed out to the conference participants: "note that he doesn't look out to the world for acclaim, or congratulations, or otherwise outwordly show happiness in his success. The joy here is intrinsic. He has no desire for external rewards. The joy comes from the process of doing. And discovering."