Early childhood educators are faced with expanded academic expectations that have forced them to devise ways that will enhance effective learning in pre schools. Play is one of the activities adopted to promote effective learning in preschool classrooms. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of play in oral skills development among pre-school children. The main objective of the study was to examine use of play in oral skills development among the pre-school children. The specific objective of the study was to establish the teachers’ understanding of the use of play and how it affect the child's oral skills development. The study adopted the surveyresearch design. The target population was 185 ECD centres,with a total …show more content…
Through engaging in joyful play, children also build meaning and develop skills closely associated with oral development. The idea is not new, it was framed theoretically by Piaget (1962) and Vygotsky (1978), and researched as early as 1974 by wolfgang (Whitehurst & Lonighan, 1998) . The issue of play and oral development was considered in the work of Piaget (1962) and Vygotsky (1978) as an aspect of child development. However the theorists did not consider the relationship between play and oral skills development among the children. This makes this as an emergent perspective of the theory. Piaget and Vygosky’s theoretical frame work supports the existing research in establishing the use of play in enhancing oral skills development among the pre school children.
2.2 Conceptual Framework of the Study This study conceptualizes that the child’s oral skills development will be affected by various factors associated with the use of play. These includes; appropriate type of play, the play environment, teachers understanding of the influence of play and ways through which play can be enhanced in the pre schools so as to influence the oral skills development among preschool children. The dependent variable is conceptualized as the child's oral skills development. This conceptual framework is diagrammatically shown in figure 1.
Independent variable Moderating Dependent