Training Early Childhood Educators to Observe, Assess and Enhance Discrete Play Skills

Abstract This intervention study describes how 39 early childhood teachers from Pennsylvania learned to observe, assess, and enhance discrete sensorimotor, functional, and symbolic play skills by completing the DiscoveryScape Play Training (DSPT), a professional development course grounded in developmental play theory. While several instruments and training programs address play broadly, the present study presents an integrated model: a short teacher-training course targeting discrete play-skill development, together with a dedicated observational instrument to measure children’s play-skill progression called the Qualitative Characteristics of Children’s Play (QCCP). A retrospective pre-test design was utilized to determine the effectiveness of DiscoveryScape Play Training (DSPT). Findings suggest that the training was associated with significant and meaningful increases in teachers’ self-reported beliefs, knowledge and skills related to observing, assessing, and enhancing children’s play skill development (0.77 average effect size). Follow-up survey analysis revealed significant additional gains following 16 weeks of teacher practice observing and assessing children’s play skills. Providing training in young children’s play development may be associated with improvements in the extent to which early childhood educators recognize, properly assess and learn to enhance discrete play skills starting play skills seen on average between birth to five years of age. These gains were maintained at higher levels when in-service teachers practice assessing child play skills after training. By improving their ability to observe, assess and promote play skill development, teachers become better prepared to facilitate children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical growth which are fostered by engaging play. Recommendations are made to expand teacher training to better support children’s play development, particularly by providing early childhood teachers with an observational assessment to measure and enhance children’s discrete play skills. Future research is needed to replicate this study in new locations and cultural contexts.