The Play as a Mediator of Learning and Psychosocial Empowerment of Children With Learning Difficulties

Abstract

Play and playful forms of development and imitation are placed at the center of the child's early developmental years. Regarding the learning support of children with special learning difficulties in reading, play, and especially the social type of play, contributes to the strengthening of phonological and phonemic processing, but to the practice of phonological awareness, through the phonological decoding of words, into phonemic and syllabic level, through the improvement of vocabulary and through the repetition of words. As a result, there is the restoration of any phonological deficits that make it difficult to process the reading ability, and by extension, the strengthening of reading fluency and accuracy. At the same time, through the play, the above-mentioned skills directly related to reading ability are supported, keeping children's interest in the classroom and minimizing the fatigue caused by frequent repetitions. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the key role of play in the processes of learning and psychosocial empowerment of children with learning difficulties.