lecture 4- play theory and functions Flashcards
state- play facilities cognitive, social and emotional development
what does playful interactions promote?
Playful interactions promote the development of role-taking skills and mature social judgements
(Piaget, 1965).
what does role taking highlight?
Role-taking highlights different perspectives of self and others.
state- conflicts arise (a lot). must learn to coordinate and manage these for play to continue
the role of play
- Important for Theory of Mind (Harris, 2000).
- Helps to:
– Master meaning/sharing.
– Compromise.
– Increase emotional sensitivity to self and others.
the role of play- friends/peers
- Friends and peers are an important part of
socialisation. - Provide the social context in which self-concept,
identity, and appreciation of others develop. - Peer influences differ at different stages:
– Infancy & toddlerhood: Limited influence (mostly family /
caregivers).
– Childhood: Main interaction with peers is through play; still
less important than family.
– Teenagers: Growing influence of peers.
piagets stages of PLAY
- based on changes in play structure rather than content
- reflect developing capacity to think symbolically
sensorimotor: early to late infancy (up to age 3): FUNCTIONAL- nonsymbolic practice games
Preoperational: Early childhood (3-6 yrs): SYMBOLIC: Make-believe and pretend
games
Concrete operational: Late childhood (7+ yrs): GAMES: Games with rules
functional play
- Repeating motor routines.
- Throwing, opening, closing, filling, tipping.
Symbolic, pretend play
- Change the function of objects using imagination.
- Role-playing.
games with rules
Importance of Symbolic
PLAY
- Pretend play becomes increasingly JOINTLY
constructed. - Two conditions of joint construction that helps
develop friendships: - (1) Sharing feelings and experiences
- (2) Negotiating conflicts
- Learn how to both lead and follow.
- Multiple perspective taking between them, others,
different characters.
PLAY & Social Interaction
- Parallel play (6-12 months)
- Simple pretend play (12-18 months). Talking,
smiling, some interaction.
-Reciprocal play (18-24 months): Action based role reversals in social games (peek a boo, chase).
- Cooperative social pretend play (2.5 – 3 years): Role taking games eg mum and baby, but with little planning or rules.
- Complex social pretend play (3.5 – 4 years): Planned pretend play. Assign roles to players, and modifies this if play breaks down.
the process of de-centering > knowing others
self centred => other centred physcial attributes => psychological attributes
social perspective talking- pre operational stage (3-6 yrs)
Focus on most salient perceptual aspects. Describe others in very concrete and observable terms eg appearances, possessions. Physical comparisons.
Concrete operational
(7-10 yrs)
Others have different points of view; allows them to look beyond surface appearances of people and to infer underlying aspects such as regularities in conduct, psychological traits. Psychological comparisons.
Formal operational
(12-14 yrs)
Logical and systematic thinking, abstractions; mental inferences and deeper psychological comparisons between people
Selman’s Stages of Social Perspective Taking
- Ability to discriminate self from others’
perspectives allows richer understanding of
self and others and the relationships between
different points of view. - Need to know the internal factors of another
to truly understand (ToM; empathy).
Otherwise resort to external inferences
Selman’s Stages of Social Perspective Taking
- Egocentric perspective (3-6 yrs)
Unaware of any perspective other than their own. Their feelings will be shared by others. - Social-Informational role-taking (6-8 yrs)
Can recognise that people can have perspectives that differ from their own. BUT only because they have received different information to themselves. - Self-Reflective role- taking (8-10 yrs)
Know that there can be conflict between their and others’ points of view, even with the same information. Both can take perspective of the other. BUT child can’t consider own
and other perspective at the same time. - Mutual role-taking (10-12 yrs)
Can simultaneously consider own and other perspective and know that others can do the same. - Societal role-taking (12-15 yrs +)
Perspectives made in comparison to social system expectancies and norms.
Imitation
Imitation emerges early and serves 2 functions:
(1) a learning mechanism through which infants gain
new skills and knowledge about the world.
(2) a social function through which they engage in
social and emotional exchanges with others.
Imitation cont
- Early, voluntary imitation, 8-12 months.
- But model must be present.
- Deferred imitation, by 2 years.
- Ability to reproduce the actions of another in the future.
- Important milestone.
- Construction of symbolic representations of experiences,
via retrieval of these from memory.
imitation cont
- In typical development infants show imitation of
vocalisations and facial expressions. - Object-focused play (by age 1) > action imitation
with toys. - By age 2, imitation games involve a wider range of
affective gestures (eg shrugging).
reciprocal imitation
- Reciprocal imitation plays key role in early peer interactions.
- Same action on same object as another > increase and
sustain social interaction. - Coordination of emotional responses > facilitates interactions.
- Refined for development of more sophisticated play skills (eg symbolic play).
- Communicates social interest in others.
- Shared affective (emotional) experience.
- Conversational turn-taking.
social relationships
play: self concept, perspective taking, imitation, social symbolism
The Case for Play in Schools
- synthesis of and commentary on the state of play in primary schools playgrounds, reviewing academic research and grey literature
- use of semi-systematic, integrative, narrative and creative approaches, searching and selecting sources, synthesising them into conceptual themes and creating an original commentary on current research and opinions
4 questions were asked:
- whar are the benefits to the whole school community of children having time, space, permission to play?
- what concerns are there about playtimes
- how are playtimes valued by school staff and by children?
- what interventions have been tried to improve playtimes
adults view
social and emotional benefits
- better negotiation and problem solving skills
- learning how to deal with conflicts , falling out and teasing
- learning how to comprise
- dealing with fear and risk
- building friendships
cognitive and academic benefits
- increased attention on return to classroom, espicially for children with ADHD
- better classroom and on task beaviour
- more concentrat
