All Work and No Play?
In a world where academic achievements are the focus and everyone seems to be worried about 'kindergarten readiness,' unstructured play is often lost in a young human's daily life. The result is often a long list of adult planned activities that are driven by learning outcomes and force children to perform unnaturally (and sometimes at a level they are not ready for). With kindergarten becoming the new first grade, and educational outcomes being pushed to achieve earlier and earlier, I see the concern. The rigorous high-standards of what kindergarten has become and the fear that *gasp* your young human may be 'BEHIND' the others in their class is often a fear I hear caregivers express. The reality is that every young human develops differently and play is a crucial part of a young human's experience; “a way for [them] to make sense of his or her world” (Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008). Play should not be eradicated from early education, in fact unstructured play should make up most, if not all, of a young human's day. Play isn’t ‘just fun’ for the young human, although interest and engagement are crucial, it also serves as a tool for cognitive, social-emotional, and gross motor development. Play-based curricula allow young humans to observe others, communicate, work cooperatively, act out their imaginations, and learn from mistakes, all of which have “lifelong impacts for [young humans]” (Rymanowicz, 2015, October 19).
As caregivers of young humans, it is important to be advocates for those in your care whether it be implementing a play-based curriculum in your classroom, encouraging play through social interactions (or play dates) with familiar peers, or setting aside time daily for your young human to be able to slow down and focus on their interests through independent play (also known as free play or free choice time). Because, at the end of the day, a young human should not be 'ready for kindergarten' or they WOULD BE in kindergarten. There is plenty of time in their life to feel the pressure to sit and engage, but for now, let them explore their world, learning through play. Therefore, I encourage you to advocate for your young human. Acknowledge that play is important to their development, make it a fixture in your young human's daily life.
But what IS play; what does play LOOK like? Well, Midred Parten researched and developed a classification system for play in 1932, and even though that was almost 90 years ago, “her classification of children’s social play is still viewed as one of the most comprehensive descriptions of young children’s social play behavior” (Xu, 2008, p.490). More recent research has found the only correction to Parten’s findings is that age doesn’t seem to be a predictor of play stage as Parten had originally observed (Xu, 2008).
Stages of Play
Note: based on (Parten, 1932), (Xu, 2010), and (Rymanowicz, 2015, October 6)
It’s important to note, however, that although they are called stages of play Parten (1932) observed that the stages were less like steps to the ‘next stage’ but, rather, that they were more fluid. This means that throughout their play scenarios you can observe young humans exhibiting each of the stages at any given time, variations of stages, and/or combinations of stages throughout a play scenario. For example, it is not uncommon to observe a young human engaging in parallel play and then later playing independently or a young human working cooperatively with others and also playing their own scenario within their cooperative play.
Here are some visual examples of the play stages that I've observed:
A looking out the window not seemingly focusing on one specific material or person R gazing at the bubbles, with no apparent engagement with the bubbles E standing on couch, getting up and down and looking around.
M sitting on a basket observing other's interactions. E observing peers engage with materials. A observing M explore the hose in the water. A does vocalize and point to what M is doing, but does not reach for the hose or water to engage in the play. R observing peers engage in play scenarios outside. R observing peers playing while standing in the wagon, he moves closer but does not show any attempt to join in the play. R observing M add materials to the basket without any attempt to join in the play.
A and R engaging in independent play scenarios in separate spaces. There seems to be no communication or interaction between the two. R selects a book and moves away from the other young humans. He engages with the book separate and with no aparent communication with the others. E crawls over to a pinecone to explore. Others play in the background but E shows no apparent awareness of their presence, engaging independently and without obvious reference to the others. R selects cars and moves over to the wood chips and works independently.
A and M engage independently but are naturally brought to one another through the nature of the circular water table. They both play with the textured balls, however they engage in separate scenarios. All these young humans are engaging with books in their own space. R and R both engaging in their own bike play with their own space, using their own materials, and in their own way. R and E are both engaging nearby but separate from one another.
In the video below, a separate intent but desire for similar materials without apparent organization of play creates a conflict (the beginnings of associated play) which they negotiate and move out of while still engaging in separate play scenarios:
R and M playing with the dress up purses and bags. They borrow or take materials from one another but are still playing in their own scenario not seemingly focused on a common goal. They do communicate with one another (or rather at one another), however, they are seem to be still focused on their own play scenario as most important. M and A climbing on an flipped over wagon. They are both engaging in similar if not identical activity (climbing up and across the wagon), however, there is no apparent division of labor, and no observable organization of the activity. They seem to be each doing as they wish without a obvious leader of play telling them what to do. A, M and R all playing in the mud pit. They might have similar intentions (stirring and adding items into the mud pit) however, there are no apparent rules or formal organization (for example, no determination of who is "the chef" or stirring the pot or if they are playing "kitchen" or "restaurant"). Listening to their conversations with one another, you can tell that the interest is primarily in their associations, not in the actual activity. R pushing A on a bike. A quick assessment would classify this as cooperative play because of the perceived common goal of the bike moving across the deck. However, with careful observation you can see two competing intentions (pushing the bike, riding on a pushed bike) that just happen to align with one another. They are sharing a material with one another but are still playing in their own scenario, making this associative play rather than cooperative play. Unlike the previous scenario, A and M are both moving the wagon up the hill cooperatively. It is semi-organized in that one is pulling while the other pushes and M told A to "help" and then shouted "push" as he was pulling. However, there are no apparent rules or formal organization, and in the end they both return to their original separate intentions of filling the wagon with rocks and sitting in the wagon. While all the children seem to have a similar goals of getting in and out of the wagon, there is no division of roles/labor or assigned roles. However, you can observe glimpses of cooperative play through the dramatization of situations in adult life (R shouting at A/R and opening and closing the door), and of playing formal games (everyone in, laugh, then everyone out and repeat). At this stage there is no turn-taking or specific leaders/roles. They are leaders of their own identical scenarios.
Play is a way for young humans to gain and practice skills in an interest-based and engaging experience, whether they be the social skills such as cooperating, compromising, or problem solving; language skills such as negotiation or linguistics; or gross motor skills such as balancing, climbing or running. Being aware of the stages of play helps you to provide materials and experiences appropriate to their individual development. It also helps you set expectations as caregivers for what a young human is capable of doing and what they are working on accomplishing. However, they will be unable to work on or practice these developmental skills if they are not given the time to do so. So, in the end, it's up to you as advocates for your young human to ensure they have these experiences by providing them with uninterrupted time to practice these skills by allowing them the time and space to just play, without interruptions, without corrections, and without shame.
Concerned about your role in play and how to support learning through play? Keep an eye out for a future blog post, we'll include a link here when it's uploaded!
References:
Parten, M. B. (1932). Social participation among pre-school children. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 27(3), 243-269.
Rymanowicz, K. (2015, October 19). The power of play – Part 2: Born to play. In Michigan State University - MSU Extension. Retrieved from http://www.canr.msu.edu/news/the_power_of_play_part_2_born_to_play
Rymanowicz, K. (2015, October 6). The power of play - Part 1: Stages of play. In Michigan State University - MSU Extension. Retrieved from http://www.canr.msu.edu/news/the_power_of_play_part_1_stages_of_play
Pramling Samuelsson, I. & Asplund Carlsson, M. (2008) The Playing Learning Child: Towards a pedagogy of early childhood, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 52(6), 623-641.
Xu, Y. (2010) Children’s social play sequence: Parten’s classic theory
revisited,Early Child Development and Care, 180(4), 489-498.
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