5.7: Play

Child Growth and Develpment (MPTC Version) · LibreTexts

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    Freud saw play as a means for children to release pent-up emotions and to deal with emotionally distressing situations in a more secure environment. Vygotsky and Piaget saw play as a way of children developing their intellectual abilities (Dyer & Moneta, 2006). Piaget created stages of play that correspond with his stages of cognitive development. The stages are:

    Table \(\PageIndex{1}\): Piaget’s Stages of Play (Cognitive and Social Types of Play (n.d.). Retrieved from https://groundsforplay.com/cognitive-and-social-forms-play )
    Stage Description
    Functional Play Exploring, inspecting, and learning through repetitive physical activity.
    Symbolic Play

    The ability to use objects, actions, or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas and may include taking on roles.31
    Constructive Play Involves experimenting with objects to build things 32; learning things that were previously unknown with hands-on manipulations of materials.
    Games with Rules Imposes rules that must be followed by everyone that is playing; the logic and order involved forms that the foundations for developing game playing strategy 33

    While Freud, Piaget, and Vygostsky looked at play slightly differently, all three theorists saw play as providing positive outcomes for children.

    Mildred Parten (1932) observed two to five year-old children and noted six types of play. Three types she labeled as non-social (unoccupied, solitary, and onlooker) and three types were categorized as social play (parallel, associative, and cooperative). The table below describes each type of play. Younger children engage in non-social play more than those who are older; by age five associative and cooperative play are the most common forms of play (Dyer & Moneta, 2006). 34

    Table \(\PageIndex{2}\): Parten’s Classification of Types of Play (Lifespan Development - Module 5: Early Childhood by Lumen Learning references Psyc 200 Lifespan Psychology by Laura Overstreet, licensed under CC BY 4.0)
    Category Description
    Unoccupied Play

    Children’s behavior seems more random and without a specific goal. This is the least common form of play.
    Solitary Play

    Children play by themselves, do not interact with others, nor are they engaging in similar activities as the children around them.
    Onlooker Play Children are observing other children playing. They may comment on the activities and even make suggestions, but will not directly join the play.
    Parallel Play

    Children play alongside each other, using similar toys, but do not directly act with each other
    Associative Play

    Children will interact with each other and share toys but are not working toward a common goal.
    Cooperative Play Children are interacting to achieve a common goal. Children may take on different tasks to reach that goal.

    Contributors and Attributions

    31. Symbolic Play (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pgpedia.com/s/symbolic-play

    32. Constructive Play (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pgpedia.com/c/constructive-play

    33. Games with Rules (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pgpedia.com/g/games-rules

    34. Lifespan Development - Module 5: Early Childhood by Lumen Learning references Psyc 200 Lifespan Psychology by Laura Overstreet, licensed under CC BY 4.0

    This page titled 5.7: Play was last modified on Fri, 07 Feb 2025 20:23:49 GMT and is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Paris, Ricardo, Rymond, and Johnson (College of the Canyons) .