Types of Play
Knowledge of the types of play can help educators to provide appropriate environments that will help support children's development.
Children's play can range from simple physical play to complex cognitive play.
Parten (1932) developed a continuum showing levels of children's participation in social play, which includes types of social participation.
Parten (1932) developed a continuum showing levels of children's participation in social play, which includes types of social participation.
Passive Play
Passive play behaviours are:
Involved Play
Involved play behaviours are:
Pretend Play
There are several benefits of pretend play. Pretend play:
Cognitive Play
Piaget (1962), Smilansky (1968), Pellegrini (1982), and Smilansky and Sheftaya (1990) describe multiple stages of cognitive play.
Four stages of cognitive play:
Socio-dramatic play
Socio-dramatic play relates strongly to children's cognitive and social abilities. It is typical of children aged 3 to 5. It offers opportunities for children to:
Passive play behaviours are:
- uninvolved, where the child moves about but does not participate in the play
- onlooker, where the child may watch or speak with players but is not involved in the play
Involved Play
Involved play behaviours are:
- solitary, where the child plays alone
- parallel, where the child plays beside or near other players
- associative, where the child plays and talks with other players but the purpose of play may not be the same
- cooperative, where the play is shared and negotiated with sharing and turn taking
Pretend Play
There are several benefits of pretend play. Pretend play:
- encourages language and vocabulary growth (Pellegrini, 1984a)
- increases memory abilities (Pellegrini, 1984b)
- enhances reasoning and problem solving abilities, especially in situations when contradictory facts are considered (McCain, Mustard & Shankar, 2007)
- fosters flexible and inventive thinking (Isenberg & Jalongo, 1997; Peplar, 1986)
Cognitive Play
Piaget (1962), Smilansky (1968), Pellegrini (1982), and Smilansky and Sheftaya (1990) describe multiple stages of cognitive play.
Four stages of cognitive play:
- functional/practice play: repetitive muscle movements such as running, banging or stacking
- constructive play: use of blocks or materials to build something
- dramatic/pretend play: use of imagination and role play
- games with rules: accepts predetermined rules to play games
Socio-dramatic play
Socio-dramatic play relates strongly to children's cognitive and social abilities. It is typical of children aged 3 to 5. It offers opportunities for children to:
- develop abstract thinking (Piaget, 1962)
- refine their understandings about the world (McCain, Mustards & Shanker, 2007)
- solve problems in a safe context (Smilansky & Sheftaya, 1990)
- have a sense of control over what they are doing or experiencing (Piaget, 1962)
- learn how to relate to their peers in a positive way (Saracho & Spodek, 2003)