HDFS 4354 - Play and Child Development Exam 1 Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, theoretical perspectives, play criteria, and developmental stages from Units 1, 2, and 3 of the HDFS 4354 exam study guide.

Structural Approach to Understanding Play

An approach to defining play based on its specific structural characteristics and behavioral forms.

Functional Approach to Understanding Play

An approach to defining play based on its adaptive function, purpose, or developmental outcome.

Criteria-Based Approach to Understanding Play

An approach that relies on a specific set of defining criteria or characteristics to determine whether an activity is classified as play.

Play Signals

Specific cues apparent in human and animal behavior that communicate the intention to initiate or maintain play.

Play as the Child's Work

The idea that play serves as the primary means through which children actively explore, master skills, and learn about their environment.

Stereotyped Behaviors

Repetitive, non-functional behaviors that lack the flexibility and intrinsic motivation required to be considered play.

Exploration

An information-seeking activity directed at understanding a novel object or environment, which differs from the self-directed nature of play.

Surplus Energy Theory

A classical play theory proposing that play allows individuals to expend excess physical and mental energy accumulated by the body.

Relaxation Theory

A classical play theory suggesting that play serves to restore energy and relieve fatigue caused by intense work or study.

Practice Theory

A classical play theory framing play as an instinctual activity that allows youth to practice essential survival skills needed in adulthood.

Recapitulation Theory

A classical play theory stating that a child's play stages reflect the evolutionary history and developmental stages of the human species.

Psychoanalytic Theory of Play

A theoretical perspective viewing play as a mechanism for children to express unconscious wishes, process anxiety, and master emotional conflicts.

Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky's View)

Vygotsky's concept framing pretend play as an arena where children act beyond their average age and daily behavior, creating their own learning frame.

Scaffolding (Bruner's View)

Bruner's concept of adult guidance and assistance during play that supports a child's problem-solving and skill development.

Piaget's 3 Stages of Play

A developmental sequence of play proposed by Piaget, moving from practice/functional play to symbolic play, and finally to games with rules.

Parten's 6 Categories of Social Participation

A framework describing six developmental levels of social play engagement: unoccupied play, solitary play, onlooker play, parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play.

Play Deprivation

The absence or restriction of regular play opportunities, which leads to negative brain, social, and emotional development consequences in animals and humans.

Circular Reactions

Piaget's concept of repetitive motor patterns in infancy through which infants repeatedly discover and re-create novel sensory and motor experiences.

Object Play

Play centered on manipulating objects, which is closely linked to motor development and cognitive growth in infancy and toddlerhood.

Motor Practice as Play

The repetition of physical movements during infancy and toddlerhood viewed as a primary form of functional play.

Symbolic Play

Play involving pretend actions, mental representation, and object substitution that grows in social and cognitive complexity from infancy to toddlerhood.

Serve and Return

The back-and-forth interactive process between an infant/child and an adult caregiver that supports social-emotional and early play development.

Secure Base

The caregiver's presence that gives infants and toddlers the security needed to explore their environment and engage in play.

Mental Representation

The cognitive ability to hold internal images, ideas, or symbols in mind, forming the foundation for pretend and symbolic play.

Social Reciprocity

The mutual, dynamic back-and-forth exchange of social behaviors between play partners.

Object Substitution

A form of symbolic play where a child intentionally uses one object to represent a completely different object during play activities.

Games with Rules

Play activities governed by explicit rules and social agreements, emerging in late toddlerhood and early childhood.