24.9: Inclusive Play

Inclusion and Playing

The literature points out that young children move from less complex types of play, such as solitary play, to more complex, partner-dependent types of play, such as parallel play, associative play, or cooperative play (Rubin et al., 1976; Jamison et al., 2012). Typically, developing children can progress from simple to more complex types of play without special teacher support. However, children with disabilities may experience restrictions in attending and in being engaged in activities requiring more complex levels of social play (Sigafoos et al., 1999). They may need adequate support from their environments to spend more time engaged in more complex social interactions with their peers. Literature shows that the social development of children with disabilities and their later social success can be significantly influenced by early interventions targeting social play between children with disabilities and their typically developing peers (Ivory and McCollum, 1999; Craig-Unkefer and Kaiser, 2002; Guralnick et al., 2006). As key elements of children's social environments, both peers and teachers can actively facilitate participation in all types of social play. In fact, beside children's characteristics, a diversity of environmental factors which can affect children's social play are highlighted in the literature, namely classroom characteristics (e.g., toys characteristics, the existence of learning/activity centers), and the types of teacher interactions (Ivory and McCollum, 1999; Guralnick et al., 2006).[1]

Definition: Early Interventions

Specific strategies or programs designed to address developmental delays or disabilities at an early age to improve long-term outcomes.

Review of Types of Play

Parten’s Classification of Types of Play[2]

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 interact 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.

Attributions

• [1] Coelho V and Pinto AI (2018) The Relationship between Children’s Developmental Functioning and Participation in Social Activities in Portuguese Inclusive Preschool Settings. Licenced (CC BY).