What do theorists say about play

Does a baby's exploration of a treasure basket count as play? Are children playing when they share rude jokes in the playground? Are children playing when they act out a scene from Roman life in assembly? In the next activity you have the opportunity to identify those activities you think can best be described as play.

Aim: to begin to clarify what play experiences children have in your setting during the course of a session. As an experienced practitioner, you will have an idea in your mind about what sorts of activities and experiences you would classify as play. Make notes during a session, or reflect on a recent session in your setting.

Try to be as specific as possible. Look at the lists you have made and put an asterisk by any that you thought some or all of the children did not enjoy, seemed to be stressful, or included an element of frustration. Look again at your lists. Have you used the same word or combination of words frequently? From looking at your lists and thinking carefully about the way you have described the activities, write a short definition of what play means to you.

Play is notoriously difficult to define, but this in itself is not problematic. What is important is that practitioners, parents and children within a setting share their ideas about what constitutes play and that we, as adults, are clear about why we value play. In order to do this, you need to take a step back and think about what you think play does and, from there, consider why it is valuable. In Activity 2 you thought about different play activities within your setting.

The words you used may provide an indication of what you think the purpose of play is. Words and phrases such as exploration, fun, freedom, investigation, enquiry, learning, social development, coping with anxieties, making sense of the world and using up energy are some of the many descriptions and interpretations of play activities. Historically, researchers and writers have identified different functions of play, and, play has, therefore, been valued for a range of different reasons.

Present-day discussions about the value of play often include ideas that have their roots in nineteenth-century society. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, links were drawn between the play of animals and children's play.

This link is still made with respect to gendered aspects of play, a point we return to in Section 4. According to theorists such as Spencer and Schiller, children had an excess of energy because they did not have to work. Play helped to dissipate this energy Hyder, The idea that play helps children understand the social world is still current today. Groos argued that play is a means through which children make sense of adult roles within society Hyder, Montessori placed emphasis on children's self-initiated learning.

Piaget played a central role in the development of the view that play may be of crucial importance in children's cognitive development. Piaget's theories about learning emphasised the need for children to explore and experiment for themselves. For Piaget, play was a means by which children could develop and refine concepts before they had the ability to think in the abstract. Play was something that older children who have developed abstract thinking no longer needed.

Those of you working with older children may wish to challenge Piaget's view. For Vygotsky, play was also important for an individual's cognitive development, but his view was somewhat different from that of Piaget.

He argued that during play children were able to think in more complex ways than in their everyday lives, and could make up rules, use symbols and create narratives. The ways in which play can support children's developing communication skills has been explored and documented by a number of researchers.

Elizabeth Grugeon's research , for example, draws attention to the way children in primary school playgrounds use language for a variety of purposes, including organising and structuring their games, imaginary play, and reinforcing social hierarchies. Quiet children in classrooms were sometimes shown to be very different when in a playground context.

The emphasis on the way in which play can help children explore and come to terms with their inner emotional states arises out of the work of psychoanalysts such as Freud, Isaacs, Klein and Winnicott. Play therapy arose out of the work of these and other psychoanalysts Hyder, Do you think they all fall into one category e. Can you identify what you seem to value most about play? Look at the notes you have made in response to questions 1—3.

What appears to be the differences between play and non-play activities in terms of:. Activity 3 may have raised questions about the extent to which we should be emphasising play as the prime vehicle through which young children learn. In Section 3 you will have the opportunity to reflect further on these issues. As Section 2. Most definitions and descriptions of, and justifications for, play are from the adult's point of view.

What else do you think could be added to this list? The study explored the views of nine reception-class teachers about play and how they incorporated play into their practice. One of the beliefs challenged by the study's findings was that play is a valuable learning context because the children have ownership and are interested and self-motivated.

It is often argued that play encourages children to be independent learners, but in order to be an independent learner the child has to develop a range of strategies and skills, ranging from selecting resources, through working cooperatively with others, to reflecting on what they know and what they need to know.

Again, the study suggested that play experiences do not automatically develop these abilities in children. Bennett et al. Repetitive play can also be a dilemma, in that adults are uncertain about when, or indeed whether, they should intervene to move the child on. This uncertainty is linked with a particular view of the child as a learner, and also of the role of adults in children's play. The belief that children cannot fail during play was also challenged by Bennett et al.

Those participating in the study re-evaluated the adult's role during play. Most teachers intervened in other sorts of play, particularly to support children's language or skills development. It was also evident in the Bennett et al. This could be either because the children had already achieved the learning intention, or because, while the play activity elicited a set of behaviours from the children, it did not seem to extend or develop their learning.

Children's intentions during a play activity were sometimes at odds with those of the teacher, and this was problematic for the teachers. In one instance, children played dogs and babies, despite the fact that the teacher had set up the imaginative role-play area to encourage and facilitate play around the theme of birthday parties. It does, however, encourage practitioners to look more closely at the actual play experiences of children, and acts as a catalyst for developing our thinking about how we should be planning for play, and about the role of adults in children's play.

The next activity looks at attitudes towards play within your setting. In Bennett et al. They had a positive view of children's capabilities, but sometimes their expectations were too high e.

For this activity you need to describe your current position with regard to play. To do this, you will need to reflect and make notes on:.

Write a description of how you approach play in your setting. Highlight what you think the adult's role is and try to relate this to specific theories of childhood, play and learning. When thinking about play in early years and primary settings, it is sometimes helpful to try to make a distinction between different types of play experience: not in terms of listing role-play, small world play, and so on, but rather in terms of the balance of child and adult input and initiation.

Free play is generally understood to be those play experiences that children choose for themselves and that involve minimal adult intervention. All play experiences are structured to a greater or lesser extent by the resources available, the people involved and the context.

Structured, or guided, play refers to play experiences in which the adult has more of an input, either in initiating the play, controlling the resources available, or intervening or participating during the course of play. Usually practitioners will have a fairly clear idea about the aim of the structured play, and may have specific learning intentions in mind, which will influence the nature of the practitioner's intervention.

Bruce is anxious about adult involvement in children's play, arguing that children's play can be dangerously damaged by adult intervention. Do you agree with Bruce's views? Practitioners who adopt a social-constructivist approach may feel uncomfortable with free play on the grounds that it can be socially isolated and does not necessarily involve children or adults in constructing and sharing meanings. Influenced by the work of Vygotsky and Bruner, these practitioners may find it easier to envisage adult involvement during children's play.

If they are to avoid taking ownership of children's play and reducing the children's choices and autonomy, adults need to intervene sensitively. If the practitioner is intervening in order to extend the child's learning, they need to be sensitive to what the child is trying to achieve and what the child's concerns are, in addition to identifying ways in which to best support the child.

Strandell's work is relevant here, as she draws attention to the need to try to understand play from the children's perspective. So far in this section we have been exploring whether or not play is valuable and worthwhile, but in doing so we have been operating within an educational framework and thinking about ways in which play may, or may not, support young children's learning and development.

Strandell argues that practitioners tend to:. While this may be natural, in that the practitioners are observing children playing and trying to make sense of what they see, it is possible to suggest that practitioners need to talk to the children to develop a better understanding of how and why children play.

Strandell provides an example of three children, Marko, a six-year-old boy, Jussi, a four-year-old boy, and Mari, a three-year-old girl, playing in a day-care centre in Finland. The play episode starts with the two boys romping on a large mattress, they then find a soft toy which Marko pushes under his sweater and then says he is going to show Hanna a child in another room.

The two boys go into the other room, show Hanna Marko's large stomach and then return to the big room where they jump off a bench onto a mattress and swing on a swing.

The two boys return and Marko suggests they close the door. For example, creating a building with blocks and each child takes on different roles to build it. Cooperative play emerges in the early preschool years. Unoccupied Behaviour Children are not engaged in play and might observe absentmindedly in one spot or wander around play areas without a purpose.

They may also follow others while engaged in their own behaviour and do random repetitive movements such as climbing on and off a chair. Onlooker Play Children observe other children or adults in play but do not become involved themselves. However, the child sits or stands within speaking distance and may use this strategy to make suggestions, ask questions, learn about materials or determine how they may participate in a play experience; all without actually entering the play themselves.

So next time you're watching the little ones in your care play, these interesting theories may just help you be a bit more enlightened as to how they're using playtime fun to actually grow, learn and develop.

Thanks to Hi Mama for these unique play theory summaries. This child care article was last reviewed or updated on Monday, 30 December Type of child care. Search Please select one of the suggested suburbs. Published on Tuesday, 19 February You're reading Child's play - Three theories you may not know.

This involves teachers providing a particular game or topic to target certain objectives. These could be number games, word games or memory activities. Children can be left to engage in the activity, but with specific prompts from their teacher. The guided playstyle focuses more on certain areas of education to ensure pupils are developing all the skills they need. It should still be fun and keep children engaged while taking part in the activities.

Children are naturally curious and want to explore the world around them. All different types of activities help to spark this curiosity and contribute to increased knowledge. When it comes to different theories regarding the benefits of play, these can be split into three main points:.

These different theories help us to understand the different benefits of play for children, particularly in the early years. Plenty of research has been done which highlights the importance of playing outside for cognitive, physical and emotional development.