Lecture 7 Flashcards
The importance of play
core features of play
- flexibility
- positive affect
- non-literality
- intrinsic motivation
flexibility
different forms and length
e.g. on own, with children, hours, minutes
positive affect
play is about having fun
non-literality
paradoxical literacy - not the child’s intention to learn but they do
intrinsic motivation
voluntary (not done for anything specific)
types of play - Piaget 1932
- functional
- construction
- pretend/symbolic
- games with rules
function play
when a child repeats motor actions on objects
e.g. pressing button for music
important for causal relationship
construction play
when a child builds things
e.g. building things
pretend or symbolic play
when a child substitutes an imagined word for reality
e.g. pretending bottle is a phone
study of play - Belsky & Most 1981
- descriptive study in 7-21 month olds
- infants initially play with all objects in the same way
- play becomes more specialized through the second year
- undifferentiated play (just throwing objects) decreases with age
- differentiated play (pretend) increases with age
functional play: functions of objects
- playing to resolve uncertainty
- playing to explore unexpected
- influence of adult pedagogy: playing to discover the unseen
playing to resolve uncertainty: functional play
children like to play with new things (novelty preference)
- maybe something they play with leaves them uncertain, children may be more motivated to ‘figure it out’
function play study: playing to resolve uncertainty
- Schulz & Bonawitz 2007
- when children understood functionality of old toy, they spend more time with a novel toy
- when children fail to understand old toy, they spend more time ‘figuring out’ old toy compared to playing with new toy
playing to explore the unexpected: functional play
toddlers’ play can look unpredictable
- but they have expectations about the world e.g. toys won’t float because of gravity
- but if a toy/world surprises them, do toddlers know what to do to figure out why?
playing to explore unexpected: study on functional play
- Stahl & Feigenson 2015
- when there was a knowledge violation for solidity, children would bang the toy against barrier
- when there was knowledge violation for support, children would drop the toy
playing to discover & pedagogy
- children are naturally curious to discover new things
- but also pay attention to others (adults) who might indicate whether there is something interesting to be discovered
Pedagogical signals and exploration: functional play
- Butler & Markman 2012/2014
- 3 & 4 year olds
- children learn that a weird object a ‘blicket’ is a magnet in 2 conditions:
- accidental condition ‘Ooops!’ when clips become a magnet
- pedagogical condition: ‘look watch this!’ showing children
- children were given 10 inert blickets and some paperclips and asked to play
- explored number of attempts to get children to attach paperclips to blicket
- children had more attempts in padegogical condition
- as something was shared for their benefit / learning from adults
playing to discover the unseen: functional play
- pedagogy as a doble-edge sword
- (previous) study provides evidence about causal relationships
…..
but what about relationships that do not exist
playing to discover the unseen: functional play study
- Bonawitz et al 2011
- accidental and pedagogical conditions
- those in pedagogical condition demonstrated a specific function of the toy (with many functions) children did not explore the toy as much
- those in accidental conditions discovered more things
- in pedagogical condition children assume adult has showed them everything and explore less
functional play key points
adults role is important but should be enough to facilitate exploration without hindering creativity and exploration
pretend (symbolic) play
- ‘as if’ stance (water bottle as if it were a phone)
- pretense is complex:
- pretender intentionally projects an alternative on the present situation (counterfactual)
- allows children to practice met-representative and linguistic skills
when does pretend play emerge
12-15 months and peak around 3-5 years
key aspect of early pretend play
decontextualization and imagination
decontextualisation and imagination
- use of realistic objects
- over time children become more skilled at decontextualization: using non-realistic objects in pretend play
- by age 3 children display more imaginative behaviour: less reliance on props