Play
What would childhood be without time to play? Play, it turns out, is essential to growing up healthy. Research shows that active, creative play benefits just about every aspect of child development.
“Play is behavior that looks as if it has no purpose,” says NIH psychologist Dr. Stephen Suomi. “It looks like fun, but it actually prepares for a complex social world.” Evidence suggests that play can help boost brain function, increase fitness, improve coordination and teach cooperation.
Suomi notes that all mammals—from mice to humans—engage in some sort of play. His research focuses on rhesus monkeys. While he’s cautious about drawing parallels between monkeys and people, his studies offer some general insights into the benefits of play.
Active, vigorous social play during development helps to sculpt the monkey brain. The brain grows larger. Connections between brain areas may strengthen. Play also helps monkey youngsters learn how to fit into their social group, which may range from 30 to 200 monkeys in 3 or 4 extended families. Both monkeys and humans live in highly complex social structures, says Suomi. “Through play, rhesus monkeys learn to negotiate, to deal with strangers, to lose gracefully, to stop before things get out of hand, and to follow rules,” he says. These lessons prepare monkey youngsters for life after they leave their mothers.
Play may have similar effects in the human brain. Play can help lay a foundation for learning the skills we need for social interactions. Play helps young children master their emotions and make their own decisions. It also teaches flexibility, motivation and confidence.
Kids don’t need expensive toys to get a lot out of playtime. “Parents are children’s most enriching plaything,” says Golinkoff. Playing and talking to babies and children are vital for their language development. Golinkoff says that kids who talk with their parents tend to acquire a vocabulary that will later help them in school. “In those with parents who make a lot of demands, language is less well developed,” she says. The key is not to take over the conversation, or you’ll shut it down.
Unstructured, creative, physical play lets children burn calories and develops all kinds of strengths, such as learning how the world works. In free play, children choose the games, make the rules, learn to negotiate and release stress. Free play often involves fantasy. If children, say, want to learn about being a fireman, they can imagine and act out what a fireman does. And if something scary happens, free play can help defuse emotions by working them out.
While play is often seen as something children do for leisure and recreation, play is actually a crucial part of a children’s development. Play is a self-chosen and self-directed activity that is focused on the process of play and not the product of it. Play is individually constructed to meet the child’s desires and needs. Finally, play is imaginative and active (Gray, 2013). Play is children’s work. Through play, children develop cognitive skills and learn new information. They learn and practice social skills, like effective communication, self-regulation, conflict resolution, problem-solving, and cooperation. Furthermore, they learn about themselves by exploring roles, interests, skills, and relationships. Play is how children explore their world.
Types of Play
According to Piaget, children engage in types of play that reflect their level of cognitive development. Piaget proposed three levels of play: functional play, symbolic play, and games with rules. Smilansky expanded on Piaget’s model to add a fourth level: constructive play. Each type of play emerges at different ages and stages of cognitive development, and the prominence of the level of play changes with maturation, as well (Johnson, Christie & Wardle 2005).
Functional Play
Functional play is the first type of play activity in which children engage. Functional play involves repetitive, physical actions, language, and manipulation of objects. Beginning in infancy, children learn that they have control of their bodies and objects, and they can act upon those objects. Infants play through repetitive actions, like shaking a rattle, splashing in the bath, or repeatedly dropping toys from their high chair. These basic actions become play when the child deliberately engages in the activity for pleasure (Frost, 1992). Eventually, as children become more cognitively sophisticated, simple, repetitive actions are replaced by more complex, coordinated actions. Functional play is enjoyed by children throughout their childhood, particularly as they discover and practice new motor skills, such as sliding, climbing, stacking, jumping, and bouncing.
Constructive Play
By the age of two, children progress from simple, repetitive functional play to goal-directed, creative activities. When children manipulate objects to create something, they are engaging in constructive play. They use objects like blocks, clay, and craft supplies in an organized way to achieve a goal. Constructive play is a form of hand-on inquiry where children gain knowledge by posing questions, testing ideas, and gathering information (Drew et al., 2008) through experimentation with basic materials to create something more complex. This type of play encourages planning, exploration, and discovery (Child Development Institute, 2010).
Constructive play facilitates the development of imagination, problem-solving skills, fine motor skills, and self-esteem. Building with blocks helps children learn spatial relationships. Manipulating objects can translate into comfort with manipulating words, ideas, and concepts. This type of play prepares children for later academic, social, and emotional success (Leong & Bodrova, 2015) and flexible thinking (Bruner 1972). Creating encourages the development of positive self-esteem by offering children power over their environment and a sense of accomplishment (Chaille, 2008). Constructive play also helps children develop character virtues, such as tenacity, flexibility, creativity, courage, enthusiasm, persistence, and adaptability (Child Development Institute, 2010).
Young children tend to prefer constructive play. When given a choice of play activities, preschool children choose constructive play more than 50% of the time (Rubin, Fein, & Vandenberg 1983). Further, constructive play is a way to scaffold play as children transition from function to symbolic play. Children should be encouraged to engage in constructive play by providing children with playtime and play materials for exploration. Providing inspiring materials is key to promoting constructive play.
Symbolic Play
Symbolic play is the ability of children to use objects, actions, or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas in play. These activities may include role-playing or make-believe play, such as pretending to be a baby, firefighter, or monster, and make-believe actions, such as driving a car by moving a pretend steering wheel, or using a banana as a telephone. This level of play is widely considered the most sophisticated play activity during the preschool and kindergarten years. Symbolic play encourages the development of social skills, academic abilities, early literacy concepts, and behavioral self-regulation (Leong & Bodrova 2015).
At around 18-months-old, toddlers begin to engage in pretend play, a type of symbolic play. They use objects to represent something else, like drinking from an empty cup or pretending to feed a doll. As children advance cognitively, linguistically, and socially, their play begins to include fantasy, drama, and imitation. Preschoolers are more capable of playing roles and incorporating social norms in their pretend play. Their role-plays and imagination become more sophisticated, and socialization becomes an important aspect of their play activities. Children assign roles to themselves and others, and their interactions often involve sequenced steps and a predetermined plan. Pretend play allows children to explore various roles and expectations and to participate in activities that they may not otherwise be allowed to explore in the real world. Through pretend play, children learn skills in negotiation, listening, sharing, taking turns, and respecting others’ feelings, thoughts, ideas, and physical space.
The sophistication of symbolic play progresses through several substages. The substages include either the child acting a role, the child using an agent to act a role (such as a doll), or a group of children with different roles. These stages also include different types of objects in the play activity. Children may use objects that resemble the real-life object that this represents, such as using toy food to represent real food. Alternatively, the child may use nonrealistic objects to represent real-life objects, such as using a stick as a horse.
Substages of symbolic play development
| Single pretend transformation toward self with realistic objects | Child takes role and uses object that resembles the real object, such as the child pretending to eat toy food. |
| Object is pretend agent with realistic objects |
Child uses object that resembles real objects and that object is treated as if it acts, such as the child has a doll and act as if it is eating. |
| Single pretend transformation with nonrealistic object |
Child uses object that has no resemblance to real objects, such as the child forms a pancake from molding clay. |
| Pretend role with realistic object | Child uses objects associated with a role that resembles real objects, such as the child pretends to be a cook with toy food. |
| Multiple pretend role transformations with realistic object |
Child uses objects that resemble real-world objects while the child takes roles, such as doctor, patient, and nurse while playing with dolls or toy animals. |
| Pretend role with nonrealistic object |
Child uses objects that have no resemblance to real objects, such as using molding clay to construct a farm. |
| Multiple pretend roles with realistic object | Children use objects that resemble real objects, such as a group of children use a toy doctor’s kit and play the roles as doctor, patient, and nurse. |
| Multiple pretend roles with nonrealistic object |
Children use objects that have no resemblance to real objects, such as molding clay to create the pretend setting and designate roles to enact. |
| Source: Frost et al., 2001 |
“In play a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself. As in
the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form; in play it is as though the child were trying to jump above the level of his normal behavior” (Vygotsk,1967, p.16).
While Piaget and others believed different types of play activities were essential to development, Vygotsky’s definition of play was limited to pretend play. He believed that play must include the creation of an imaginary situation, assigning and acting out of roles, and following a set of rules specific to those roles (Bodrova & Leong, 2007). Play is a way for children to learn about symbols and separate thoughts from objects. Vygotsky saw play as a means to help children self-gratify. Through play, children can create fantasy situations to get their needs met, regulate emotions, and delay gratification. This level of play also aids children in learning self-regulation by following the rules and adhering to the roles of the play activity. Vygotsky believed that play provided scaffolding for learning to assist children in operating at the upper-end of their zone of proximal development.
Smilansky also emphasized the importance of symbolic and pretend play. Her research in this area found that children that did not engage in this level of play displayed cognitive and emotional delays. This effect was especially present in underprivileged children. In response, Smilansky proposed that to facilitate children’s development of pretend play, adults should encourage:
- Imitative role play. The child pretends to play a role. For example, “I am the teacher, and you are my students.”
- Make-believe with objects. Use nonrealistic objects to represent real objects and actions. For example, pretending a stick is a horse and riding it.
- Verbal make-believe. Incorporate verbal dialog and descriptions in place of actions. For example, “Let’s pretend I cooked the dinner, and now I am setting the table” when only the last activity is actually imitated.
- Persistence in role play. The pretend play episode lasts for at least 10 minutes.
- Interaction. Two or more players interact within the context of a play episode.
- Verbal communication. There is some verbal interaction with other players related to the play episode (Frost, 1992).
Games with Rules
The final type of play is games with rules. At this level, the play activity has imposed rules that must be followed by the players. To successfully participate at this level of play, children must have the cognitive ability to understand and remember the rules. These games also require the children to self-regulate, curbing their own desires and needs to adhere to the rules of the game. Games with rules are often characterized by logic and order, and as children mature they can develop method and planning in their game playing (Frost et al., 2004).
Through games with rules, school-age children develop an understanding of cooperation and competition. By initiating their own games with rules, children learn the need for rules, how to negotiate with each other, and fairness so that the game is enjoyable for everyone. Team sports and board games are games that have very specific rules and encourage the development of strategy. Electronic games are designed to target children at different stages of development and often encourage the practice and mastery of new skills through challenging tasks and fantasy (Frost et al., 2001).
Imaginary Companions
An intriguing occurrence in early childhood is the emergence of imaginary companions. Researchers differ in how they define what qualifies as an imaginary companion. Some studies include only invisible characters that the child refers to in conversation, or plays with for an extended period. Other researchers also include objects that the child personifies, such as a stuffed toy or doll, or characters the child impersonates every day. Estimates of the number of children who have imaginary companions vary greatly (from as little as 6% to as high as 65%) depending on what is included in the definition (Gleason, Sebanc, & Hartup, 2000).
Little is known about why children create imaginary companions, and more than half of all companions have no obvious trigger in the child’s life (Masih, 1978). Imaginary companions are sometimes based on real people, characters from stories, or simply names the child has heard (Gleason et al., 2000). Imaginary companions often change over time. In their study, Gleason et al. (2000) found that 40% of the imaginary companions of the children they studied changed, such as developing superpowers, switching age, gender, or even dying, and 68% of the characteristics of the companion were acquired over time. This could reflect greater complexity in the child’s “creation” over time and/or a greater willingness to talk about their imaginary playmates.
In addition, research suggests that contrary to the assumption that children with imaginary companions are compensating for poor social skills, several studies have found that these children are very sociable (Mauro, 1991; Singer & Singer, 1990; Gleason, 2002). However, studies have reported that children with imaginary companions are more likely to be first-borns or only-children (Masih, 1978; Gleason et al., 2000; Gleason, 2002). Although not all research has found a link between birth order and the incidence of imaginary playmates (Manosevitz, Prentice, & Wilson, 1973). Moreover, some studies have found little or no difference in the presence of imaginary companions and parental divorce (Gleason et al., 2000), the number of people in the home, or the amount of time children are spending with real playmates (Masih, 1978; Gleason & Hohmann, 2006).
Do children treat real friends differently? The answer appears to be not really. Young children view their relationship with their imaginary companion to be as supportive and nurturing as with their real friends. Gleason has suggested that this might suggest that children form a schema of what is a friend, and use this same schema in their interactions with both types of friends (Gleason et al., 2000; Gleason, 2002; Gleason & Hohmann, 2006).
Attributions
“Peer Relationships” by Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose, Child Psychology is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
“Play” by Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose, Child Psychology is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
“Play, Leisure, and Peer Relationships” by Troianne T. Grayson, Mary Wuergler, and Michael Konrad, Child and Adolescent Psychology is licensed under CC BY 4.0
