Play

Play

• Spontaneous; children are free to initiate or end play

• Autonomous; children have choices in terms of how to play

• Means over ends; children engage in play for its own

• sake

• Joyful; accompanied by positive affect

Types of play (Parten, 1932)

• Unoccupied behaviour (infancy+): Sensory activity that lacks focus or narrative

• Solitary play (3 months – 2.5 years): Child playing alone in a focused or sustained way

• Onlooker play (2.5 – 3.5 years): Child observes other children’s play without becoming involved themselves

• Parallel play (3.5 +): Children playing in proximity but

  not together

• Associative play (4+): Children playing side-by-side; sharing resources and acknowledging, copying

  and working with one another BUT

  different goals

• Cooperative play (4.5 +): Children playing together and sharing the same game.

Autism Spectrum Condition

• Because of behaviours commonly associated with Autism (repetitive behaviours, differences in social interactions and communication), social play can sometimes be difficult

• 'Inappropriate’ play is a marker of ASD

• In object-based play, focus is on object rather than play partner. Child may become quite specialised in particular objects as a result.

• Play levels ‘below’ cognitive level and chronological age: mismatched play styles can inhibit sustained play

Down Syndrome

• Content of play seems similar to neurotypical children but play schemes tend to be repeated

• Strong sociability

• Same developmental sequence as neurotypical children

• Less manual exploration, limited exploratory play

Importance of play

• Mammalian animals play, most brain development occurs during early life

• Rats who didn’t play can’t socialise effectively as adults (Pellis, Pellis & Bell, 2010)

• Fun, diversion

• Critical for development

• Equifinal: there are other factors that affect development just as much as play

• Epiphenomenal: (parallel) play behaviours relate to development but doesn’t have a causal role

How might play relate to development

Pretend play - make-believe socio-dramatic play

Creativity

Problem solving and reasoning

Social skills#Language

Self-management/regulation

However, there is a lack of empirical evidence (Lillard et al., 2013)