Week 12 - Play

Question 1

What is Play?

Answer 1

Play behaviors are creative and behaviorally flexible encounters with the world

Question 2

Components of play

Answer 2

1. Voluntary
2. Non-functional (means over ends)
3. Nature of behaviors may not resemble those in a functional context
4. Positive affect

Question 3

Long-term Functions of Play

Answer 3

• Classic view of play is that is practice for adulthood

* Master behaviors that are important functionally

Question 4

Immediate Functions of Play

Answer 4

• May help children learn new skills
  * Imaginary play linked to perspective taking
• Allows practice in “novel” situations
  * Generate new responses in novel environments

Question 5

Domains of Play

Answer 5

(1) Locomotor
• Rolling down a hill
• Climbing a tree
(2) Object
• Building blocks
(3) Social
• Play fighting
• Peek-a-boo
(4) Pretend
• Playing house

Question 6

Locomotor Play

Answer 6

Defining features:
(1) Physically active
(2) Not functional
Rhythmical stereotypies:
• Seen in infancy
• Infants spent about 5% of their time engaged in such behaviors
• No gender differences
Exercise play
• Swinging, jumping, climbing, splashing, swimming, skipping rope
• Increases through preschool years
• Peaks at around 4 to 5 years of age, then declines
• Boys engage in more exercise play than do girls

Question 7

Functions of Locomotor Play

Answer 7

• Rhythmic stereotypies are linked to motor development
• Locomotor play is linked to physical strength and endurance
• Children appear to need it
• Researchers have done studies with preschoolers and elementary school children in which they vary the amount of time children spend in their seats doing school work
• The longer they are in their seats, the more vigorously they play

Question 8

Object Play

Answer 8

• Preschoolers (ages 3-5 years) spend a lot of time engaged in object play
• Researchers observed preschoolers during a school year
• 26% of all observed behavior was pretend play with objects• Boys did this more than
girls• 10% of all observed
behavior was construction• Girls did this more than boys
• These behaviors may peak in preschool/early elementary school

Question 9

Functions of object play

Answer 9

Was hypothesized that playing with
objects increases problem-solving
abilities
• Data are not consistent with this

Question 10

Social Play

Answer 10

Defining characteristic is interaction between two people
• Child and adult
• Two children

Question 11

Adult-child Social Play

Answer 11

• Adults will self-handicap

* Give child the chance to be in different roles

Question 12

Peer Social Play

Answer 12

• Rough-and-tumble play
• Physically vigorous behaviors
• Exaggerated movements
• Role-taking and self-handicapping
• 50:50 rule
• Observational studies suggest that rough
and tumble play accounts for:
• 4% of behavior during preschool
• 10% of behavior in primary school
• 4% of behavior in early adolescence
• Boys do it 2 to 3 times more often than do
girls

Question 13

Functions of rough and tumble play during childhood

Answer 13

(1) Opportunity to practice fighting skills
• No evidence to support this
(2) Learning to decode social skills
• Some evidence that more rough and tumble play is linked to ability to decode emotional signals (e.g., happy and sad faces)
(3) Helping boys to form social groups
• Rough and tumble play occurs most frequently among groups of boys who engage in high levels of activity
and rough behavior
(4) Way to learn about behaviors of others and demonstrate your own strengths

Question 14

Functions of rough and tumble play during adolescence

Answer 14

During adolescence, rough and tumble play is linked to aggressive behavior
• Dominant adolescents initiate it with less dominant peers
• May be a way of using aggression to control resources

Question 15

Pretend Play

Answer 15

Begins in parent-child interactions
• Parents expand on children’s pretend themes
• Around 1.5 to 2 years of age, children begin engaging in pretend play with peers
• Peaks at around 5-years-of-age
• Preschoolers also engage in solitary pretend play

Question 16

Functions of pretend play

Answer 16

(1) Early literacy
• Pretend play is stories!
• Aspects of children’s pretend play prospectively predicts early language and writing skills (after accounting for verbal IQ)
(2) Theory of mind
• Pretend play has also been linked to better understanding of others’ beliefs, thoughts, and intentions

Question 17

Imaginary Friends

Answer 17

• Many children have imaginary friends
• Younger children more likely to have an imaginary friend than older children
• Most often, imaginary friends are other children (just
  invisible)
  • Sometimes they are modelled after specific people
  • Sometimes more creative
• Children know that their imaginary friends are not real

Question 18

What is the difference between children with imaginary friends and children without?

Answer 18

more likely to be:
• First born or only children
• Watch less television
• Have greater verbal skills
• Have more advanced Theory of Mind
• Less shy

Question 19

What is the function of imaginary

friends?

Answer 19

• Communicate information that the child does not want to communicate directly (“Lolo is scared of the dark”)
  • Deflect blame (“Lolo broke the lamp”)
  • Be a way to try out new social roles and ways of interacting
  • Be a source of fun and comfort