The purpose of this project is to provide information for child care workers and parents on the types and development of play skills. Play affects several domains of development: cognitive, social/emotional and physical. Children learn information about their world and the about the rules of interacting with others through play.
Play skills are developmental in nature. In other words, there are levels of play that children experience, starting with simple unorganized interaction with objects and progressing through levels that eventually lead up to cooperative, sequential play.
Some children need help in progressing from one level to another. Therefore, it is important to know what level the child is at and what is the next level.
The following is a brief example of the basic levels of play we see at preschool and some suggestions for supporting these types of play.
SIMPLE PLAY:
REPRESENTATIONAL PLAY:
SEQUENTIAL PLAY:
Play skills are developmental in nature. In other words, there are levels of play that children experience, starting with simple unorganized interaction with objects and progressing through levels that eventually lead up to cooperative, sequential play.
Some children need help in progressing from one level to another. Therefore, it is important to know what level the child is at and what is the next level.
The following is a brief example of the basic levels of play we see at preschool and some suggestions for supporting these types of play.
SIMPLE PLAY:
- Filling/Dumping: non specific placement of objects into a container
- Means End: an action makes something happen i.e. See and Say
- Functional Play: appropriate use of objects i.e. pretend to eat, drink, talk on phone
REPRESENTATIONAL PLAY:
- Single Scheme: use objects to engage in one action i.e. feed doll
- Multi-Scheme: use objects to engage in 2 or more pretend actions i.e. child pours tea and drinks
- Symbolic Play: an object is symbolically substituted for an absent item i.e. child puts hand to ear to pretend to be on the phone
SEQUENTIAL PLAY:
- Role Play: child takes on role of familiar people
- Role Play: child takes on role of unfamiliar people
- Sequential Play: simple sequences such as bathing a doll includes: washing, drying, dressing
- Coordinated Sequences: more cooperative play with peers including more coordinating events and interactive play i.e. setting up fire station, assigning roles, driving to fire, putting out fire, returning to the station etc.