Play Theories & Info (Exam 1)

Attunement Play 😀

When you smile & coo happily at your baby, they learn to mimic your expressions & eventually smile back / begins to vocalize as well

Body Play & Movement

• Develop a spatial understanding of themselves & world around them

• Leaping in the air teaches us the effects of gravity. Dance teaches us the various ways that our bodies can move.

Object Play 🐦

• Playing w/ toys & objects develops problem-solving skills

• Allows children to explore fxns of objects & develop tools

• Animal researchers developed a test to determine IQ among ravens.They put food on a string and suspended it from a branch. The ravens began to gather the string using their claws and beaks until the food was in their grasps.

Social Play 💬

• One of the most complex forms of play; helps children establish social norms

• As children engage in group play, they develop interpersonal skills that will help them have successful friendships & relationships as adults.

Imaginative & Pretend Play 👻

• birthplace of creativity

• Whether a child’s playing house or hosting a tea party, they’re developing their own inner story & an understanding of their place in the world

Storytelling & Narrative Play 🎭

• element of fantasy

• helps both children and adults gain an understanding of ourselves and others

• Children love it when you read them a story, in the same way that adults enjoy binge watching on Netflix.

Transformative-Integrative & Creative Play 🎨

Creating music, brainstorming: these playful situations tap into our creative juices that are developed during pretend play & extract finished ideas that add function & progress to our lives

Pratt: Progression of Play Behaviors

Exploratory, symbolic, creative, games, recreation

Takata: Play Epochs

1. Sensorimotor

2. Symbolic/simple constructive

3. Dramatic/complex/pre-game

4. Games

5. Recreation

0-2 years: Sensorimotor/Exploratory (Takata & Pratt)

• Exploration/manipulation of self & objects 

• Body scheme, sensory motor development (Pratt)

2-4 years: Symbolic & simple construction (Takata & Pratt)

• Symbols for actions + acquisition of language; beginning imagination

• Form & classify actions & feelings (Pratt)

4-7 years: Dramatic, pre-game, creative, complex construction (Takata & Pratt)

• Acting out concepts, beginning rules of actions

• Sensory-cognitive skills (Pratt)

7-12 years: Games (Takata & Pratt)

• Control of actions of objects, rules determine competence

• Skills, rules, competition w/ peers (Pratt)

13+ years: Recreation (Takata & Pratt)

• Play behavior reflects social context, focus on sophisticated rules 

• Self-identity & achievement (Pratt)

Unoccupied (birth-3 months) (Parten’s Theory)

Sensory activities lacking sustained focus, narrative, social interaction, no clear story lines during play, language use non-existent/limited

1. EX: child picking up, shaking, then discarding objects in their vicinity. A child hitting and giggling at a play mobile in a cot

2. These forms of play may seem un-educational at first, but have an important developmental purpose: helps them orient themselves in the world. They learn to master their limbs & motor skills. They develop depth perception, tactile skills, object permanence

Solitary (3 months - 2.5 years) (Parten’s Theory)

Child plays alone & w/ little interest in toys outside their immediate vicinity; Increased focus/sustained attention on toys, emerging play narratives (symbolic play: use objects to represent other objects), disinterest in other children/adults during play, unstructured play (no clear goals)

1. EX: 2 children playing with their toys but never looking at or showing any interest in each other. A child who has developed the ability to sustain interest in one toy for more than 60 seconds.

2. An older child going for a walk through the park, exploring their surrounds. Even after a child has gotten older and mastered more advanced forms of play, solitary play continues to be employed. Even in adulthood, we play alone to recharge, reflect and explore new ideas on our own. Jean Piaget, a key education theorist, believes solitary play is vital for children to learn. Piaget labeled children ‘lone scientists’, exploring their environments through trial-and-error and discovery.

Onlooker (2.5 - 3.5 yrs) (Parten’s Theory)

1st sign of children showing interest in other children’s play; withhold from play due to fear, disinterest, hesitation; will observe other play without getting involved

1. EX: Younger children in multi-age Montessori classrooms will observe older children play, but not get involved in the ‘big kids games’. Adults watching a sporting event. A shy child watching others play without getting involved herself due to timidness. Listening and observing are powerful forms of learning. Albert Bandura showed the power of observation through his bobo doll experiments: children would observe adults playing with dolls. Those who saw children being aggressive toward the do

Parallel (3.5-4 yrs) (Parten’s Theory)

Children play in proximity to 1 another, but not together; share resources/observe 1 another from a distance. BUT, won’t share same game play/goals while playing

1. Independent exploration/discovery; observation & mimicking; minimal communication w/ other children

2. EX: Brother & sister play w/ same Lego set, but constructing different buildings. Children sharing brushes & paints, but painting on diff canvases. Early play dates where parents bring their children to play together. These dates are usually about getting children more comfortable with peers of the same age, but younger children will often not start playing together too well.

Associative (4-4.5 yrs) (Parten’s Theory)

Children start acknowledging one another & work side-by-side, but not necessarily together. Begin to share, acknowledge, copy, work with one another, BUT don’t share common goals during play (not yet playing “together”)

1. Negotiating sharing of resources; Emerging chatter & language skills. Children ask each other questions about their play + are still playing independently w/ diff objectives & strategies. Mimicking & observing continue to occur at a closer distance

2. EX: Children asking one another questions about their play, what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it. The children are nonetheless working on different tasks. Children realizing there are limited resources in the play area, so negotiating with one another for which resources to use

Cooperative (4.5 and up) (Parten’s Theory)

Fully integrated social group play: Children playing together, sharing same game, have same goals, assign one another roles in game, collaborate to achieve set gameplay goals.

1. achievement of socialization, but social skills will still be developing. Children may need support, guided practice, scaffolding to help them develop positive social skills like sharing, compromise, turn-taking

2. have team roles/personas during gameplay; can be an element of compromise & sacrifice for common good of game

3. EX: Imaginative play, where children take on the roles of their favorite movie characters to act out a scene or create their own new scene. Board games where children need to take turns in order for the game to proceed according to shared/agreed upon rules. Organized sports.

4. Social constructivist learning theory. Key theorists include Barbara Rogoff and Lev Vygotsky. Central idea: social interaction helps students progress in their thinking. When students discuss things in groups, they see ideas from different POVs and have their own ideas challenged and refined

Practice Games (Piaget)

Functional Play: Physical (running, sliding, jumping, dumping out of a box of toys, experimenting w/ the world through their senses); prevalent during the sensorimotor stage between 0-2 years. This stage ends between ages of 2-4 years. From here, children will move from just moving blocks around & tossing them to stacking & starting constructive play

Constructive Play: Children 3-7 years old want to play w/ toys & other objects to accomplish a goal (ex: using blocks to build a tower). Eventually they’ll start mixing in some fantasy play w/ constructive play. Instead of building a tower, they may use blocks to build a little town & drive cars around their block buildings on imaginary roadways

Symbolic/Fantasy Games: 3-4 years old, last through 11-12 years old (Piaget)

Make-believe & role-playing games; fantasy-themed games (princess, knights, roleplaying games as a teacher, police officer, mom/dad)

Give the child dress-up clothes, play pretend; often they’ll want to tell you what to do during the game.

Games w/ Rules (age 7 through adulthood) (Piaget)

Play games w/ friends w/ pre-set rules (tag, hide-and-seek), board, video games

Children understand how to follow the rules; if someone breaks them, there’s consequences in the game. They understand ideas like cooperation & like being competitive.

According to Piaget’s Stages of Game Play, children play in…

functional, constructive, fantasy, games w/ rules. The way children play shows their cognitive developmental level.

Mary Reilly, Developmental Stages of Play

Play has an organizing effect on human behavior & critical base of adult competence (3 stages: exploratory, competency, achievement behavior)

• Occupational behavior: roles associated w/ being a kid, student, worker, adult

Florey, Actions & variations between human & non-human objects

1. Creative/unstructured media 🎨

   1. Play objects intrinsically change shape/form when acted upon (clay; finger paint, paint, or crayon and surface; water; sand; mud). This excludes change in shape or form due to breakage, exposure to high or low temperature, or water

2. Objects that can be changed when combined w/ other objects 🧱

   1. Play objects intrinsically change shape or form when combined with another like object or many dissimilar objects (blocks; beads; construction materials-tinker toys, plastic bricks, legos, duplos (larger legos to avoid choking risk), bristle blocks

3. Objects that retain OG form 🚗

   1. The objects do not intrinsically change shape or form when acted upon (mobiles; rattles; balls; stuffed toys; dolls & accessories; wheeled toys -wagons, bikes or trikes, cars, trains, pull-toys; miniature toys - small soldiers, horses, houses; costumes; trading cards; jump rope, tennis racket, baseball bat, etc.; board game)

Test of Playfulness (ToP): Anita Bundy

68 item observational assessment where child is observed for 15 mins in/outdoors

• 18 months - 10 years of age

Knox Pre-School Play Scale (PPS)

Observational assessment correlating significantly w/ developmental age

• 0-6 years age

• Useful when comparing groups, pre/post test

• Looks at 4 dimensions of play: space & material management, imitation, participation

Characteristics of Play

1. Flexibility

2. Spontaneity

3. Intrinsic Motivation

4. Non-literal or Symbolic Object Use

5. Voluntary Engagement & Free Choice

6. Elicitation of Positive Affect

7. Lack of Functional Purpose or Goal

8. Often Resembles Real Behaviors, but Lacks the Consequences

Factors Affecting Play

1. Gender

2. Culture

3. Age (Chronological & Developmental)

4. SES

5. Context & Environment

6. Ability & Disability

7. Preferences & Interests

Play & Children with Disabilities May Be:

• Delayed, More passive, Less “playful”

• Immature or atypical

• Restricted by physical access

• Require more adult assist

• Include less peer interaction

• More adult & media focused