Asubstance that is runny and squishy, mucky and sloppy - the made-up word for it is 'gloop'. The word 'gloop' is an approximation of the sound that is made when you handle or play with it. The term is commonly used by early years practitioners for certain malleable materials provided for children so they can explore colour and texture.
Gloop usually takes the form of mixtures such as cornflour and water, prepared jelly or shaving cream. However, there are concerns about the use of some of these materials that practitioners should discuss and share with colleagues and parents before they introduce them into their setting.
Issues to consider include:
* Should children be encouraged to play with food?
* Will children develop bad habits during meal times if they have become used to playing with food at other times?
* Is it morally acceptable to use food contents for play when so many children in the world suffer hunger?
* Is it true that many children do not enjoy playing with sticky or messy liquids?
* Are chemical substances such as shaving foam safe for children to play with?
* Is it crucial to offer these experiences of handling sloppy mixtures to very young children, and are there comparable activities available that are as effective but not as messy, such as dough, sand and water play?
Age and experience Whatever you decide to do in your early years setting, or at home, you need to take into account the age and experience of the children you care for.
Messy substances may not appeal to all children. Usually the more insecure and worried ones do not like touching sloppy mixtures, while confident children are more inquisitive and experimental.
In the majority of nurseries, younger children are excluded from this sort of tactile experience because less emphasis is placed on the need for babies and toddlers to develop sensory skills or to learn through handling a variety of tools and materials.
However, babies whose parents encourage them to feed themselves early are naturally predisposed to playing with sticky and sloppy materials. They can handle soft food such as pasta and peas, and they learn good fine-motor skills as they pick up food using a palmer and then a pincer grasp. Babies who sit in high chairs to eat often enjoy slapping down their hands on the food and play with it a great deal before it goes into their mouths. By the age of ten months babies can become quite proficient eaters and even manage to use a spoon to consume yoghurt or puree. These skills need to be reinforced and encouraged by supportive adults.
Babies will look for constant praise for their achievements in feeding themselves and they will need to copy these skills from the adults and children around them. We in Britain can learn a great deal from our European partners in this matter. In most other European countries, families come together for the majority of meals in the day, and children enjoy the same food as their elders as well as the social experience that enhances communication skills. For families who cannot unite during the day, nurseries and childminders have responsibility for helping their children develop a healthy attitude to eating and the independent skills that accompany it.
With this in mind, for young children to be given food 'gloop' to play with outside of meal times is likely to confuse their understanding of what is right and wrong. If children have developed an understanding that food can be played with in their food tray and then eaten, it is hard for them to understand that adults now want them to play with it but not eat it. It is also important to remember that young children use the mouth as a sensory orifice and put any object into it.
Nought to two years
For this age range, it may be wise to avoid using gloopy food mixtures until children have become confident and independent eaters. This stage is usually reached by 20 to 24 months. In the meantime, babies from ten months should be offered play with natural materials that they can handle and pick up with small tools. But always ensure that they are supervised and that the materials are safe if sucked.
Provide a variety of experiences with:
* Large and small stones to knock together to create sounds
* Sand and gravel to build castles, to shovel, pour and mould
* Soil to dig and cart from one area to another in buckets, boxes and wheelbarrows
* Leaves to throw around and kick about
* Cones to knock together, to throw and to cart around
* Warm water to splash in, to pour, to sail boats, wash dolls and so on.
Babies and toddlers need very good access to all these materials so that they can use all their senses and learn to handle them on their own.
Therefore, early years practitioners should sit babies in sand pits, in shallow builders' trays and on blankets, indoors or outdoors, where they can sit among these sorts of objects. Create the experience of sitting on beaches where there is often a combination of sand, stones and gravel.
Model how to fill buckets and spades with sand, gravel and a little water to create castles. Babies will delight in knocking down the towers you make together.
Two to three years
By this age children have become more knowledgeable, have learned to categorise objects and know how they should be used. When children have reached this level of confidence and sophistication it is more reasonable to introduce ideas that challenge their accepted view of the world.
By two years, children know that it is not wise to put everything in the mouth, and they are using language to communicate interest and curiosity.
At this age they will be less likely to become confused if they are presented with food substances as play materials. The experience of handling a variety of natural materials from an early age will have taught them to be inquisitive and to enjoy investigating. Now they will enjoy playing with more runny, mushy and squishy substances that will provide new and exciting challenges.
For those children who are less confident about exploring new materials, the chance to observe their peers participating in this form of play is very important and it will act as a role model for their future behaviour.
Provide a variety of experiences with:
* Cornflour and water
* Flour and water
* Sand and water
* Clay and water
* Soil and water
* Cooked pasta.
Other 'gloop' experiences should be provided through regular cooking sessions. For example, ingredients for making cake and jelly are interesting to stir and pour using tools, but if they are handled can be extremely sticky.
These substances, left out on a table for children to play with, are particularly unpleasant, as they will attract flies and ants. The difficulty is that adults often make the wrong assumption about what children like to do. Adults think that children want to play with jelly or cold baked beans, because it reinforces the stereotype of children loving to get messy. While it is good for children to get as messy as they want, this objective can also be achieved by covering their bodies with mud in the garden and then using a hose pipe or a watering can to wash it off.
This is probably a better alternative than playing with sugary food in the open air.
The important part about offering these sorts of 'gloop' substances is that children are able to choose whether to participate or not. Sensible safety precautions should be taken by adults to ensure that play with these substances does not damage children's skin or clothing. The role of the adult is to engage babies and toddlers in the enjoyment of play and to promote communication and language, as well as physical skills. A good level of adult interaction will help babies become investigative and responsive.
Adults should try to be as inventive as possible in the variety of experiences that 'gloop' can cover. Best use of the outdoors should be made at all times of the year so that babies and toddlers become used to enjoying all aspects of the natural world.
Further reading
* All about messy play, Nursery World, 4 November 2004