Constructive play in ECEC: Theories, contexts, and languages

How can we set up play environments that support the development of logical and mathematical thinking and give space to productive activity, creativity, and divergent thinking? Why is it important to explore constructive experience in the infant-toddler centre and preschool? What is the meaning of constructive play in the 0-6 age range? Constructive play is a complex educational proposal because it involves all areas of development: the sensory, the cognitive, the motor, and the relational. Constructive language connects thought, memory, emotion, actions, and words. Constructive play offers children the opportunity to develop self-regulation, resilience, and perseverance; to develop language and implement graphic competence. Constructive play evolves with the child's development: from the manipulation of materials, through the exercise of knowledge and learning, the structure becomes artefact-something that has been made with care and that satisfies the aims for which it was created. All of this takes shape through an educational direction that sees the organisation of spaces and the careful selection of materials as fundamental. This publication is addressed to teachers, atelieristas, pedagogists, and researchers who wish to deepen their understanding of the meanings and the ways of offering constructive play in infant-toddler centres and preschools, with a rich range of operational and didactic ideas and learning environments designed to support the development of constructive play in children.