5.7: Play
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Freud saw play as a means for children to release pent-up emotions and to deal with emotionally distressing situations in a more secure environment. Vygotsky and Piaget saw play as a way of children developing their intellectual abilities (Dyer & Moneta, 2006). Piaget created stages of play that correspond with his stages of cognitive development. The stages are:
| Stage | Description |
| Functional Play | Exploring, inspecting, and learning through repetitive physical activity. |
| Symbolic Play |
The ability to use objects, actions, or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas and may include taking on roles.31 |
| Constructive Play | Involves experimenting with objects to build things 32; learning things that were previously unknown with hands-on manipulations of materials. |
| Games with Rules | Imposes rules that must be followed by everyone that is playing; the logic and order involved forms that the foundations for developing game playing strategy 33 |
While Freud, Piaget, and Vygostsky looked at play slightly differently, all three theorists saw play as providing positive outcomes for children.
Mildred Parten (1932) observed two to five year-old children and noted six types of play. Three types she labeled as non-social (unoccupied, solitary, and onlooker) and three types were categorized as social play (parallel, associative, and cooperative). The table below describes each type of play. Younger children engage in non-social play more than those who are older; by age five associative and cooperative play are the most common forms of play (Dyer & Moneta, 2006). 34
| 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. |
Contributors and Attributions
31. Symbolic Play (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pgpedia.com/s/symbolic-play
32. Constructive Play (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pgpedia.com/c/constructive-play
33. Games with Rules (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pgpedia.com/g/games-rules
34. Lifespan Development - Module 5: Early Childhood by Lumen Learning references Psyc 200 Lifespan Psychology by Laura Overstreet, licensed under CC BY 4.0