The purpose of the thesis was to brief nursing staff in Kanta-Häme central hospital to early childhood education and early childhood education when the child is ill. The aim was to organize an education day for staff in Kanta-Häme central hospital pediatric ward 3A. The purpose was to inform the staff about early childhood education, early childhood education and play for a child with an illness. In addition the aim was to give them useful operations models for practice execution in early childhood education.

This thesis consists of early childhood education, contextual orientation, and the significance of play for a preschooler. The theoretic framework of early childhood education includes also the part of history from which can be seen the turning points of early childhood education development. Play is an important part of early childhood education and it was dealt with as its own field.

The thesis was practice based. The practice based part was the educational day that was organized May 19th 2011 at 12.30-15.30 in Kanta-Häme central hospital for pediatric ward staff. Feedback was asked about the educational day and it was used in evaluating the success of the nature of practice based action of the thesis.