Sally's Blog

Hi

Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 hosted a discussion about letting small children play with toy guns and weapons earlier this week. Opinion was of course divided as to whether this is something that grown ups should allow.

Of course as all parents and early years practitioners know, if a child does not have a toy gun or weapon to wield, he/she will find another item ( perhaps a stick) to pretend with! Children use role play to make sense of what they see in the world around them, or on television, and at this stage are perfectly able to use any item symbolically in order to achieve this aim!

I think it is therefore nigh impossible to stop a child playing in this way if he/she has a determination to do so! In my opinion, the important thing is that when grown ups witness such play, they make a great effort to put guns and weapons into a correct context for children and to explain the dangers and moralities surrounding the use of weapons as simply as possible.

Sally