The 16 Types of Play in Early Childhood
This article was originally written on empoweredparents.coWhat is play and why are the different types of play and stages so important for a child’s overall development?
What is Play?
Play is the medium through which children explore and experience their world.
A child’s overall physical, emotional, cognitive and social development depends on play.
For a child, playing and learning are the same thing. Everything kids learn in the preschool years, they learn through play.
Some characteristics of play:
Play is intrinsically motivated and spontaneous
It is focused on the process rather than the product
Play is carried out as if the activity were “real” and driven by imagination
It is mostly free of externally imposed rules
It is done merely for enjoyment
Children learn to understand the world and how it works through play. Their experience of reality is reflected through play.
During play children are:
Thinking
Solving problems
Developing memory
Planning and investigating
Developing language skills
Concentrating
And learning many more skills…
How Many Types of Play are There?
What are the characteristics and types of play in children?
It is difficult to say the exact number as there are many types of play that have been identified by various child development theorists.
A distinction can be made, however, between stages of play and types of play.
The stages of play are based on the level of social interaction during play (such as solitary or social play) or on the main characteristic of play (such as symbolic play or play that involves games with rules).
The types of play are based on the specific type of activity involved such as language play or constructive play).
There are roughly 3-5 general stages of play that have been identified, but many more types of play. These are all explained below.
All types of play are important and, although children progress naturally through stages, they tend to add and integrate some types of play, rather than stop one type and start a new type.
Types of Play in Early Childhood
Here is an overview of all the stages and types of play in child development, according to the theorists.
In the book “The Young Child in Context: A psycho-social perspective“, Marike de Witt has a comprehensive list of the various theorists and the types of play they identified.
Solitary Play
Mildred Parten identified four main social stages of play – solitary, parallel, associative and cooperative play
During the first stage, known as solitary play (or non-social play), children play with toys on their own and do not notice or concern themselves with other children or what they are doing.
Parallel Play
When children engage in parallel play (Parten’s second stage of play), they may play with similar toys such as building blocks, but they are playing next to each other rather than together.
They are not interacting but are happy to be playing near another child.
Children also engage in onlooker play, where they watch the other child play but do not join in or play themselves.
Associative Play
During associative play (Parten’s third stage of play), a pair or small group of children play together, but with little cooperation and negotiation.
Cooperative Play
Cooperative play (Parten’s fourth stage of play) may include a game with rules or a shared goal, such as building a tower together. Children plan, negotiate and assign roles as they play.
Practice Play
Jean Piaget identified three stages of play – practice play, symbolic play and games with rules.
Practice play is about exploring materials and toys to “see what they do.” It involves simple, repetitive movements, sometimes also without toys.
Some theorists also refer to unoccupied play, which tends to be comprised of random movements without a clear purpose, although it is still a part of play.
Symbolic Play
Piaget’s second stage of play, called Symbolic play, is when children use an object, action or idea to represent something.
They could use a block, for example, to pretend they are on a telephone call.