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The Importance Of Peer Statues In Children

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4. Children need communication with other children when they are growing up, but what makes other children likeable and others not? A study conducted by Wentzel and Asher formed five different peer statues for children. The first is popular children, and just like the name these are children who are liked by their peers. The next peer group is average children, and they have positive and negative reactions from other children. Then there are neglected children who “are infrequently nominated as a best friend but are not dislike by their peers” (Santrock 490). Rejected children is the next and it is where children who are not picked as best friends or liked by their peers. The last is the controversial children who are the frenemy of the children …show more content…

Play also has other beneficial elements to it as well, like it reduces stress and conflicts. Because it has these beneficial qualities, therapist will sometimes use it to help children cope with the difficulties in their lives. There are also different types of play that children participate in. The first type is sensorimotor and practice play. The book defines this play as “behavior by infants to derive pleasure from exercising their sensorimotor schemes” (Santrock 500). During this play they are exploring their environment and surrounds and learning how things work. They will sometimes participate in practice play, which is where they repeat a behavior over and over again until the master the skill they are working on. Practice play does decrease with age because the child has usually mastered it by then. The next type of play is the pretense/symbolic play which is when “a child transforms aspects of the physical environment into symbols” (Santrock 500). This type of play usually takes place between 9 to 30 months old and this is when they start using their imagination to play pretend. This is an important type of play because it helps children develop cognitive skills like balancing social roles, testing reality-pretense distinction, and role taking abilities (Santrock 500). Social play is the next type of play and it is simply just how children interact with their peers. This play could be conversations, games, and actual physical play. Next is constructive play and it is a “combination of sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic representation” (Santrock 500). This play usually takes place in preschool and elementary aged children. This type of play for example is drawing outlines of objects instead of just smudges with their fingers. The last type of play is games, an obvious type of play for children. This play is defined as “activities that are engaged

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