2.5.2 Social play
Social play is defined as play that occurs in the interaction of children with caregivers or other children. Typically, social play is not classified as a unique category of play because any type of play – object play, pretend play, and physical play – has the potential to be enacted alone or with others (Tarman & Tarman, 2011).
White (2012) in her study “the power of play” explains that interactions within play scenarios, however, provide great benefits to children whether their partners are adults or peers, and are therefore worthy of note.
In her study which focused on how children can benefit from play and imagination in early childhood, she notes that with age and increasingly mature social capacities, children’s interactive
Parallel play: From the age of 18 months to two years, children begin to play alongside other children without any interaction. This is called parallel play. Parallel play provides your toddler with opportunities for role-playing such as dressing up and pretending. It also helps children gain the understanding of the idea of property right such as “mine.” They begin to show their need of being with other children their own age. Parallel play is usually found with toddlers, although it happens in any age group.
Associative play: When children are around three to four years of age, they become more interested in other children than the toys. The child starts to socialize with other children. This play is sometimes referred to as “loosely organized play.” Associative play helps the pre-schooler learn the do 's and don 'ts of getting along with others. Associative play teaches the art of sharing, encourages language development, problem-solving skills and cooperation. In associative play, groups of children have similar goals. They do not set rules, although they all want to be playing with the same types of toys and may even trade
Children learn to think and create beyond their world. They assume adult roles and learn to think in abstract methods. Children stretch their imaginations and use new words and numbers to express concepts, dreams and history.
Cooperative play: Cooperative play begins in the late preschool period. The play is organized by group goals. There is at least one leader, and children are definitely in or out of the group. When children move from a self-centred world to an understanding of the importance of social contracts and rules, they begin to play games with rules. Part of this development occurs when they learn games such as “Follow the Leader”, “Kibet Says”, and “team sports”.
Dramatic play requires children to impose details, information and meaning into their play. Dramatic play structures should be very simple and basic in design and construction. A basic structure of four walls, a roof, and a window can be the children’s home, a classroom, a doctor’s office, or a castle. On the other hand, a realistic replica of a 7-11 convenience store can only be a 7-11 and a rocket can only be a rocket (Lawrence,
Early Childhood is marked by a time in children’s lives when they develop “a confident self-image, more effective control over their emotions, new social skills, the foundations of morality, and a clear sense of themselves as boy or girl” (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011, pg. 45). According to Erik Erikson, early childhood is a period of “vigorous unfolding,” one where children have a sense of autonomy and a new sense of purposefulness or initiative (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011, pg. 45). Play is a means for children to learn about themselves and they begin to adopt the moral and gender-role standards of the society in which they live (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011). A negative outcome of early childhood is the guilt children feel as a result of excessive punishment and criticism by the adults in their lives (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011)....
Play is an important part of emotional-social development. Play can act as a way for children to reveal their innermost feelings and express thought. As defined by the text, play is “voluntary activities done for enjoyment or recreation that are not performed for any sake beyond themselves.” Children move through different levels of play as they mature. One form of play which scientists have become increasingly interested in is imaginative play. With imagination children learn how to be creative. Many children between ages 3-5 create imaginary friends for themselves.
Play has been essentially described as the primary occupation of children. Within this occupation, children are given a platform to develop cognitively, physically, and most noticeable, socially. In regards to the developmental benefits of play, sociologist over the years have lent their knowledge to further analyze distinct types of play in which children engage. One such sociologist was Mildred Parten whose work on play later became a regularly cited source for the various types of play children typically engage in at various stages of development. Within her play model, Parten categorized play into the six categories of unoccupied behavior, onlooker behavior, solitary play, parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play (Text citation). In accordance with the actions and behaviors defined by Parten, children who were present at the time of the observation explicitly exhibited similar conduct.
Play is such an important part of the learning and growing, especially for children. Children engage in many different types of play, but the play I saw the most when I observe the children of my daycare is sociodramatic play. The book Understanding Dramatic Play by Judith Kase-Polisini defines sociodramatic play as “both players must tacitly or openly agree to act out the same drama” (Kase-Polisini 40). This shows that children play with each other and make their worlds together as equal creators. Children also work together without argument. There is also some personal play involved in their sociodramatic play. The children involved in the play worked to make a family having dinner, which is great example of how this will prepare them for
In 1994 Howes suggested, “children’s [pretence] is more sustained and complex when they are playing with friends, compared to acquaintances” (cited in Smith, 2009). Although Child A is not playing with a friend, it can be inferred that her Mum is more than her acquaintance; therefore, Howes’ statement can apply as if Child A was with a friend. Subsequently, this could explain how Child A managed to sustain her pretend play for five minutes at a minimum. Additionally, it has been proposed by Hartup that “mutuality and emotional commitment…may motivate children to sustain cooperative interaction” (1996, cited in Smith, 2009). Likewise to Howes’ perspective, this could explain Child A’s play behaviour. It can be assumed that as parent and child, the pair has an emotional commitment. In addition to this, it is evident from the observation there is cooperative interaction, as the Mum responds to what Child A says and does, and vice versa.
The authors took the time to consider the importance of play in the early child care setting, so took the time to explain the theory and definition of playful aggressive sociodramatic play. They also provided readers with the benefits of playful aggressive sociodramatic play and ways for educators to support playful aggressive sociodramatic play behavior. The technique and examples provided in this article were clearly defined, easy to understand, and proven to be
This stage of development is categorized by imagination and symbolic language. During the beginning of this stage, toddlers spend most of their playtime using their imagination and playing pretend. This helps them to decipher the difference between reality and fantasy. Between the ages of five and seven, these children transition from parallel play, to associative and cooperative types of play behavior. These new play behaviors increase their social skills as they interact with peers, siblings, and parents. During this period, children also start engaging in dramatic play with others. This helps them explore different social roles, such as pretending to be a mother while playing house. Dramatic play opens up an entirely new world to children as they use their imagination with others (Hughes, 2006). By playing in a world that does not provide the child with any negative consequences, they are free to play without
The word “play” has numerous meanings to different people in different contexts. Therefore it cannot have one definition and is described in a number of ways. Smith (2010) describes play as involvement in an activity, purely for amusement and to take part for fun. That play is “done for it’s own sake, for fun, not for any external purpose.” (Smith, 2010. P4) Therefore, as one precise definition cannot be presented for the word ‘play,’ it is described in a number of ways such as social dramatic play. Briggs and Hanson (2012) portray social dramatic play as the building blocks of a child’s ability to accept the possibility to step into another world, building and developing on children’s higher order thinking, accentuating the child as a social learner. Another example of play is exploratory play, which is described as children being placed in an explorer or investigator role, to identify the cause or affect a resources that is presented to them has. (Briggs, M and Hanson, A. 2012) Games are also another example of play. They are included on the basis that playing games with rules, regardless of age, can develop a child’s intellectual capabilities along with their physical, behavioural and emotional health. (Briggs, M and Hanson, A. 2012).
Many theorists have tried to define play as a concept, however, no two agree on a set definition. Their backgrounds and induvial lifestyles influence the way they see the importance of play. Reed and Brown also believe that there isn’t an agreed definition of play because is something that is felt rather than done (Reed & Brown, 2000 cited in Brock, Dodd’s, Jarvis & Olusoga, 2009). In spite of this, it is clear that most theorists uphold the ethos that play is imperative to a child’s learning and development. There is a wide range of different studies and theories which helps us develop our own perception of what play is. In my personal experience I have found play to be a way of expressive our emotions, exploring and learning new things, thus
The book, Exploring Your role in Early Childhood Education, defines play as, “any activity that is freely chosen, meaningful, active, enjoyable, and open-ended.”(pg. 140) Play has many positive characteristics such as freedom to explore and create. Suppose when a child enters his/her classroom and has various self-selection activities available, the child can become engaged in something of interest specifically to that individual child. The book also states, “Play is active and is natural process of mentally and actively doing something.”(pg. 140) When children can act out or explore experiences they are having hands on experience and learning by actually doing. Without knowing it, children are practicing body movements as well as mental processing though acting imaginary games out.
An Article by Dr. Leong and Dr. Bodrova (2016) stated that play is beneficial to children’s learning especially when it reaches a certain degree of complexity. When they engage in play activities most of their early years, they learn to delay gratification and to prioritize their goals and actions. They also learn to consider the perspectives and needs of other people and to represent things significantly to regulate their behavior and actions in a cautious, intentional way.
Play directly influences how children develop both emotionally and socially. Children learn how to express their emotions and cope with their feelings as they experiment with different characters in their play. Play gives children a “harmless outlet to their built up aggression” (CHETN). This is displayed when a child becomes angry, upset, or stressed about a situation in their lives; these young children may not be old enough or have the proper communication tools to communicate what they are feeling. Therefor they may choose to play with objects that depict the emotions that they are feeling and attempt to cope. Simply said, a child will use play to explain how they are feeling rather than acting out in a negative fashion (Wehrman 351). This not only works for the child when expressing emotions, it can also be effective for whole families in coping with emotions. When families come together and play they may be “less analytical and intellectual and more ...
Frost, J. L., Wortham, S. C., & Reifel, S. (2010, July 20). Characteristics of Social Play | Education.com. Retrieved March 3, 2014, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/characteristics-social-play/
Before diving into my research, I reflected on the knowledge I already knew regarding play and play based learning. From experience, I know that play is an enjoyable activity for children, and even some adults. I know that there are different ways one can play. For example, playing with others is known as cooperative play and playing alone is considered solitary play. There are different types of play. For example, there is dress up or pretend games, which is considered dramatic, play and there is playing with building blocks which is constructive play. After my reflection I realized that I was more knowledgeable on the action of playing rather then the benefits of it.
By interacting with others in play settings, children learn social rules such as, taking turns, trade, cooperation, sharing, rules, and mixing with other. They discover scenes and stories, solve problems, and negotiate their idea through social barriers. They know what they want to do and work conscientiously to do it. they learn the powerful lesson of pursuing their own ideas to a successful conclusion. Also, support most children progress from an egocentric view of the world to an understanding of the importance of social skills and rules, they learn that games such as follows the Leader, baseball, and soccer cannot work without everyone obeying to the same set of rules. It teaches children life has rules (laws) that we all must follow to function effectively. Research shows that children who involve “(in complex forms of socio-dramatic play have greater language skills than non-players, better social skills, more empathy, more imagination, and more of the subtle capacity to know what others mean. They are less aggressive and show more self-control and higher levels of thinking”.