Play in young children helps to
nurture the individuals developing needs, through play a child will improve its
physical development through developing co- ordination; social development
through sharing, socialising and co-operating with peers; cognitive development
and the exploration of the world; language development from speaking, listening
and trying out new words and lastly emotional development, through experiencing
a range of emotions and reacting to these. Both Piaget and Vygotsky have
recognised that play is an important part of a child’s social and cognitive
development; Froebel and Bruce support play in development and found many
advantages of play in early childhood.
According to Mildred Parten
(1932) there are six stages of play:
1. Unoccupied:
this stage is made up of random movements with no objectives with newborns and
infants;
2. Solitary:
between the ages of 0 to 2, the child can play independently and alone as it is
still self- centred and also shy;
3. Spectator:
during this stage at 2 to 2 ½ years old, the child observes other children
playing but does not part take: through this the child widens his vocabulary;
4. Parallel:
at the ages of 2 ½ to 3 years old the child will play alongside other children
and may not have much contact but will still learn from each other;
5. Associative:
from 3 to 4 years old children will play separately from one another but are
also involved with what each other are doing. This stage of play builds on many
developmental stages and also builds friendships;
6. Co-operative:
from 4 years plus all stages of play will have now come together in the
co-operative stage and each child will truly start playing together.
A few years ago I created a case
study and observed a child over a period of time, I also studied the child in
each area of play and could link the child to each of these stages. Each child
moves through the stages at different ages depending on the environment around
them. The child I studied was my nephew from the age of 1 ½ to 4 years old,
whereas through observing my niece she moved through these stages at an earlier
time as she always had someone to play with, my nephew.
Along with the different stages
of play there are also different types of play:
1.
Functional play: This type of play develops fine
motor and gross motor skills, the physical activities also encourages the child
do be active;
2.
Constructive play: this involves exploration
such as making a den from pillows or creating a house from Lego blocks, this
play teaches children the manipulation of building and fitting things together.
3.
Socio-dramatic play: this form of play is the
most difficult as children must negotiate characters and co-ordinate with each
other. Scenarios can be real-life based and also fictionally based.
4.
Symbolic play: Materials and objects are used to
represent people and objects.
5.
Small world: this type of play involves changing
figures into another world, for example creating a small town out of Lego.
Bruce (1996) says, ‘It is becoming increasingly clear through research
on the brain as well as in other area of study, that childhood needs play. Play
acts as a forward feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking
in adulthood.’
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