play Flashcards
According to Brian Sutton-Smith (2011), what are key truths about play?
Play occurs across the lifespan
There are multiple types of play
Socio-cultural expressions of play vary
What are some types of childhood play?
Object play
Functional play
Physical play
Pretend play
Playground games
Educational games
Construction play
Rough and tumble play
Games with rules
Sociodramatic play
Board games
What are the universal characteristics of play?
Spontaneous: children are free to initiate or end play
Autonomous: children have choices in how they play
Means over ends: play is for its own sake
Joyful: typically accompanied by positive affect
What are the challenges in defining play?
There are definitional problems and ambiguity
Lack of universal agreement can affect research and application
What is unoccupied behavior in play (Parten, 1932)?
Observed in infancy
Sensory activity that lacks focus or narrative
What is solitary play?
- Occurs from ~3 months to 2.5 years
- Child plays alone in a focused and sustained way
What is onlooker play?
Occurs around 2.5–3.5 years
Child watches others play but does not join in
What is parallel play?
Seen from about 3.5 years
Children play near each other but do not interact
What is associative play?
Seen from age 4+
Children share resources and engage with each other, but pursue different goals
What is cooperative play?
Seen from age 4.5+
Children actively work together with shared goals in play
What are some critiques of Parten’s stages?
- Not a strict developmental sequence
- Individual play preferences vary
- Doesn’t account for play content evolution (Howes & Matheson, 1982)
How does play differ in children with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)?
- Focus on objects rather than social interaction
- Inappropriate or repetitive play can be a marker of ASC
- Play levels may not align with cognitive or chronological age
- Mismatched styles can reduce sustained engagement
How does play appear in children with Down Syndrome?
- Play schemes often repeated
- Strong sociability
- Follows similar developmental sequence as neurotypical children
- Less manual exploration and limited exploratory play
What evidence supports the biological basis for play?
- Observed in mammals, birds, and some reptiles
- More complex and frequent in larger-brained species (Iwaniuk et al., 2001)
- Often occurs in early life, aligning with rapid brain development
What happens when play is restricted in animals?
Rats deprived of play show poor social skills as adults (Pellis et al., 2010)
What are some views on the purpose of play?
- Could be seen as a diversion or stress relief
- But also possibly foundational for flexible and inventive thinking (Bruner, 1972)
What are the three theoretical views on how play relates to development?
Critical: Play is necessary for development
Equifinal: Play helps but isn’t essential; other paths exist
Epiphenomenal: Play correlates with development but isn’t causal
(Lillard et al., 2013)
What is pretend play and when does it emerge?
- Emerges in the 2nd year of life
- Involves symbolic actions (e.g., banana as phone), attribution of properties (e.g., doll is sleeping), and referencing invisible things (e.g., imaginary monsters)
What happens to pretend play over time?
Peaks in preschool years
Declines during middle and late childhood
Does empirical evidence show that pretend play is critical to development?
No strong evidence supports a critical role in creativity, problem-solving, language, social skills, or self-regulation (Lillard et al., 2013)
