Pow! Training to support superhero play

The one-day course entitled ‘Battle Stations’ has been launched this summer to support practitioners in promoting positive approaches to children’s fascination with superheroes and weapons.

Delegates attending the course will consider the importance of superhero play in the lives of young children, including how to channel it positively and use it as a tool to extend thinking and learning skills and foster imaginative development. The training will also evaluate a range of children’s literature and resources with a superhero theme and its potential for developing a range of skills within the EYFS.

The course also covers strategies for developing a range of cross-curricular learning opportunities from superhero play, and how to bridge the gap between the culture of home and early years settings to support the emotional well-being of children.

Doral Hayes, operations director of the CJ Group, which owns Acorn Training, said, ‘There’s been much research around gender differences during play, and how children, often boys, base play on superheroes and weapons. While some early years practitioners feel they should discourage such activities, viewing it as aggressive and anti-social, we believe that if managed in an effective way, this type of play can support language, imagination and cognitive development and further assist with pro-social learning in terms of it helping children consider the needs and feelings of others.’

She added, ‘Children engage most confidently and readily around subjects with which they are familiar, and research has shown that being able to engage purposefully with children’s interests can impact positively upon children’s motivation to talk, read and write.’

The course Battle Stations, is being run on 4 October (High Wycombe) and 31 October (Bournemouth) and 8 November (Manchester) and 30 November (Birmingham), and costs £99 plus VAT per person. It is also available to individual settings or early years departments as an in-house course.

• For more information or to book a place visit http://childcaretraining.co.uk/services/open-course-list.aspx