Essay On Pretend Play

Sara Smilansky is a Developmental Theorist who has identified four types of play: Functional play, Constructive play, Dramatic play, and games with rules. Smilansky says that Dramatic play is the most mature type of play because this is the time where children start to understand their surroundings and imitate what they see others doing. The research on play focused on sociodramatic play and the impact it has on children’s learning. In Smilansky’s book ‘The Effects of Sociodramatic play on Disadvantaged Preschool Children’, she says that “…a form of voluntary social play activity in which preschool children participate”.

The observational data was prepared by using the time interval sampling method. The intervals consisted of a consecutive fifteen second spacing. The observation was based off four different videos with a bell sounding off every fifteen second. Separate charts that contained basic information about each child such as, name, age, sex, etc., was used with various categories of behaviours associated with social and cognitive play. One check mark was added every interval when a certain behaviour was present. The data collected also included a ranking system that prioritized behaviours. Once all the data was collected social and cognitive play scores were computed to get the total, relative and average frequency of each child, these calculations are show on Appendix A Table 1. A miscellaneous category was also included; the calculations can be found on Appendix A under Table 2. Both calculations from Table 1 and 2 were used to determine and support specific hypotheses.

I observed a classroom of four-year-old students who are enrolled at the Child Development Center on the George Mason University campus. This observation lasted about fifteen minutes with a total of twelve students in the classroom. At the time of my observation the students were engaging in free playtime where they are allowed to play games, make crafts, and interact with their fellow classmates. I was seated in the corner of the classroom where the children could not easily see me or get distracted by me. I stayed seated throughout the whole observation so the students would not be affected by my presence. Many different activities were happening at the same time, but a couple standout situations reminded me of many subject areas we

This assignment is all about play and learning for children and young people. Play is engaging in an activity for enjoyment and pleasure however can also be used for learning purposes and development in children and young people. Play activities can be planned by practitioners within the setting or can be free-play, when a child goes off and plays by themselves. Play can be carried out individually or in groups and can also be carried out in different environments such as indoors and outdoors. ‘Research confirms the importance of play for infants in developing children’s brains and minds.’ (http://playtherapy.org.uk/ChildrensEmotionalWellBeing/AboutPlayTherapy/MainPrinciples/PlayDefinition) this is why practitioners encourage young children

The importance of observation to anaylse children and young people 's play is it helps you to identify the children 's play needs and play preferences. It is also important because it helps us as playworkers to discuss the effects of change in ambience or

The pretend play observation was conducted by both the first author and a trained research assistant. These observations consisted of a three-hour observation, one hour each day, of the free play time of each class. The researchers tracked each child individually, keeping each participant’s data separate from the others. During the first hour of the pretend play observation period, the researchers watched the children play without the introduction of stimuli, also known as “business as usual.” Upon the completion of the “business as usual” period, either the teacher or a researcher would set an opened box of dress-up costumes in the play section of the classroom. The box consisted of twelve mass produced costumes in total, with six being the official Disney princesses: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Tiana, Merida, Jasmin, and Mulan, and six non-princess costumes advertised as “girl costumes”, in order to disentangle the relationship between princess and novel stimuli. The non-princess costumes included Wonder Women, a pink Power Ranger, Transformers: Optimus Prime for girls, Violet from The Incredibles, a bumblebee, and a lady bug; though the play behaviors shown with these costumes were not recorded. Every seven minutes of free playtime, the researchers would fill out a snapshot observation form, each taking three to four minutes to complete, to record the percentage of time

Three Years: Pretend play helps children to de-centre as they explore how others might feel, think or act. They become aware of gender roles and start to make special friends. As imagination develops, children become easily afraid of things such as the dark or pretend monsters, etc. They begin to learn about negotiation.

The terms “play”, “learn” and “teach” are commonly used in the early childhood sector. This essay attempts to define and interconnect these terms to produce a holistic understanding of how play can be used as a medium to help children learn.

Youngblade, L. M.. & Dunn, J. (1995). Individual differences in young children's pretend play with mother and sibling: Links to relationships and understanding of other people's feelings and beliefs. Child Devel- opment, 66, 1472-1492.

Play is central to the development of children, enabling them to make sense of their world as they learn through exploration and experimentation. Susan Isaacs said ‘play is indeed the child’s work and the means whereby he grows and develops’. (Isaacs,1929) Play can support a child’s social, emotional and behavioural development through the following:

Using the ChIPPA, the examiners assessed the children individually in a quiet space. Seeing that the children were under the age, their parents were also in the room at a distance from the testing. Prior to assessment the examiners retrieved background information on each individual child from answers of the parents and medical records. For further data analysis of the child’s play, the examiners used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences and the Clinical Observation form. The examiners conducted two sessions of the ChIPPA; which included the symbolic and conventional imaginative pretend play, that are then divided into three sections

From an early age children are known to engage in a number of activities in which would feed their curiosity alongside aiding their development. The main activity in which they would willingly participate in would be pretend play; play is not something which is only done by children however can be performed by adults and even animals.

Free from adult obligations and unburdened by serious responsibilities, children are likely to spend many of their days role-playing imaginative scenarios, an activity known as pretend play [CITE CITE]. Typically appearing around the age of twelve months, pretend play is initially central to the self, before expanding to include peers and objects [CITE]. As well as being an effective way to keep children entertained, prominent psychologist Lev Vygotsky believed pretend play to be a complex process which fosters the development of vital cognitive operations such as self-regulation (impulse control, self-direction, planning, and appropriate social behaviour) and symbolic thought (assigning an alternative meaning to something), known together

Secondly, it is important to consider the strengths of naturalistic observation as a method. This was identified when the child was consistently moving and doing different activities that allowed me to understand how he communicates with other children, how he behaves and what he learns from others. In the play setting the child was able to develop his thinking and according to the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (DOH, 2000) through social relationships, the child was encouraged to express his feelings, emotions, which was achieved by the setting creating an enjoyment environment.

Play tests the ability of the children to be able to develop ideas around places and objective. The pretend play assists children in developing important critical thinking and evaluative skills. For instance, the board games tech the children importance concept such as waiting, turn-taking and socialization with other students. Children during play use gross and fine motor skills and react socially to each other. The children thinking what they are going to do and use language to communicate with one another and they respond emotionally to the activities.