Six Categories Of Play

Unoccupied play - Generally the young infants will engage in this type of play. They tend to be looking at their hands or keeping to themselves. They don’t seek contact with another

Play in the sense of emotional maturity, it teaches the child how to build relationships through self confidence and self esteem. When a child occupy themselves in physical play this helps the child with with their physical coordination. A child’s cognitive development through play helps a child express their feelings and thoughts along with cultural and social understandings. Practice alphabets, numbers, colors, and shapes.

Play is essential to every part of children’s lives and is important to their development. It provides the children with different ways of doing things children will want to explore and learn new things.

This means that play is seen as a natural instinct for a child and is their way of understanding the world around them. Play is something

In the toddler classroom, the children interacted with each other, however many of them were more interested in playing and exploring on their own. The children enjoyed free play at learning centers, story time, and outside play during my observation. The toddlers preferred parallel play in which the children used similar toys in similar ways, but did not interact with each other. For example, when one child began playing with the kitchen toys in the dramatic play center, soon all of the children began playing with the available plastic food items. However, the children were more interested in showing the teachers what they were doing and

The relationship between play and learning seems obvious to many child professionals and parents, and yet there are still lack of understanding surrounding the importance of children's play. Some people believe that children need to "work" not play, and that playing serves no useful purpose in a learning and development environment. This is surprising considering that play, with its high levels of motivation and potential enjoyment empowers children (as well as people

“Current theories about inclusive play revolve around the idea that play is important for life and that all play workers should be committed to creating play environments that are inclusive and that offer multi-sensory experiences for all children. Play environments should ensure children and young people can become involved in imaginary play and can help develop motor activity. They should also allow interaction in a safe environment. Play is seen as the language that can bring children of all different abilities together. All children and young people have the same basic needs and go through the same development stages, even though they may not all go through them at the same pace: some go through some stages more quickly than most, while others may become static in their development for a while. None of this should prevent access to any setting. Through play with other children they develop social skills and learn about behaviour, communication and friendship. Play is the tool for practical learning

Enjoys playing with other children for a few minutes or have a couple of close friends they play with

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:

T is a two year old, white, english speaking male. This is his first year at the Child Development Center, but his second year of school. T is an only child, who lives with his mother and father. T is an easygoing child, he tends to go with what is happening in the classroom. T is also extremely friendly, he is one of the first children to welcome you when you enter the classroom, and enjoys to have others play with him. T is very energetic, he is constantly moving, and running and enjoys being in the schools motor room. When involved in social interactions, T has a hard time with self-regulation when it comes to conflicts with others. Many times T opts to begin play by himself and then others join. When faced with the idea of sharing or taking things from others, T’s response is negative. If arguing over an object with one of his classmates, T will either attempt to bite the object, or bite his own hand. This often happens in times when he is angry or overwhelmed. I have noticed that T is interested in cooking, he likes to be in the kitchen area, making soup, and sharing his food with others. T is also interested in building, he enjoys being in the block area, primarily the magnet tiles, to build houses. T also enjoys big body play, he likes to be able to move,

Who defines what play is? Reed and Brown suggest that play is something that is felt (2000, as cited in Jarvis et al, 2009), whereas Piaget

There are many stages of play, and each have their own role within a child and their development. The first stage is called unoccupied play. This is when children move a great deal, but they have no motive to be moving that much. As Allen implies, technology plays a role in this like having music playing in the background or playing it on headphones without a purpose. The next stage of play is solitary play, which is the stage where children tend to have no interaction with other children and they play alone most of the time. For example, in technology this ties in when a child is using a computer, or an iPad and play games that they like, but they are playing alone. The third stage of play is called onlooker play, this stage is described as just watching. They don’t play themselves, but they enjoy watching others play. Having an infant watch another play on a video game, iPad, or computer is an excellent example of this stage of play. Next, is parallel play, which is when children play around other children and try to mimic them, but don’t necessarily play with the kids around them, but they play in the same

Children express themselves in various ways; from the moment they are born, right up until the point at which they enter adulthood. Even throughout adulthood, individuals continue to express themselves and develop continuously. Every child is different, and children have different preferences and interests when it comes to play. Some gravitate towards solitary play, which consists of the child playing alone, whereas some children gravitate towards parallel play. Parallel play consists of the child playing by themselves, but next to or around other children. Associative play is also common, and consists of children playing with others, in a chaotic manner, quite disorganized. Cooperative play consists of children playing with others in an organized manner, with less commotion than associative play. All of these forms of play can be recognized in ECE settings, and Superhero Play can be associated with each of them.

1 A younger girl looking on at the older children running on top of the spinner.

When you think of play you don’t really think about or realize how important it really is in a child’s life. It consists of five elements, and these elements are the make-up and the meaning of play. The first element is that it is pleasurable and enjoyable. This means it must be fun! In order for it to be considered play, there must be a fun and enjoyable element to it. Play also has no extrinsic goal which means it is engaged for