9 Play
Learning Objectives
- Define play.
- Describe the six types of play that emerge over time.
- Define pretend play and describe how it contributes to development.
- Describe the ways that children benefit from play.
- Explain how we can promote healthy play.
The Role of Play in Development
What is Play?
Play is spontaneous fun activity found at all ages and in all cultures. Play begins in infancy. Freud analyzed play in terms of emotional development. Vygotsky and Piaget saw play as a way for children to develop their intellectual abilities (Dyer & Moneta, 2006). Piaget called play “a child’s work.” Subsequent research has shown that play provides many positive outcomes for children in all domains of development. The activity of play provides children opportunities to exercise all their developing capacities: physical, cognitive, emotional, and social. Play is spontaneous; children are intrinsically motivated to play. Play may be done alone or with others. It often involves pretending and make-believe.
Types of Play
In a classic study, Parten (1932) observed two to five-year-old children and noted six types of play: Three labeled as non-social play (unoccupied, solitary, and onlooker) and three categorized as social play (parallel, associative, and cooperative). The following Table describes each type of play. Younger children engage in non-social play more than older children; by age five associative and cooperative play are the most common forms of play (Dyer & Moneta, 2006).
Table 9.1 Parten’s Classification of Types of Play in Preschool Children
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Unoccupied Play | Children's behavior seems more random and without a specific goal. This is the least common form of play. |
| Solitary Play | Children play by themselves, do not interact with others, nor are they engaging in similar activities as the children around them. |
| Onlooker Play | Children are observing other children playing. They may comment on the activities and even make suggestions, but will not directly join the play. |
| Parallel Play | Children play alongside each other, using similar toys, but do not directly act with each other. |
| Associative Play | Children will interact with each other and share toys, but are not working toward a common goal. |
| Cooperative Play | Children are interacting to achieve a common goal. Children may take on different tasks to reach that goal. |
adapted from Paris et al., 2019
Pretend Play
Pretense is a familiar characteristic of play. Pretend play can be combined with physical play or playing with objects. When pretending, children act as-if; they engage in make-believe. Their words and actions are not literal, but evoke something beyond what is concretely present (Lillard et al., 2015). In his study of cognitive development, Piaget was interested in pretend play and he documented the way in which it involved symbolic thought, that is, the ability to have a symbol represent something in the real world.