For example, kids might all be playing on the same piece of playground equipment but all doing different things like climbing, swinging, etc. When a child plays together with others and has interest in both the activity and other children involved in playing they are participating in cooperative play. Play starts when we are babies, but it does not stop there! Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. Donate Share This! Check out what else to expect from your baby.
It's a healthy form of learning through play and part of your child's play journey. Watching helps them gain confidence and learn the framework for future stages of play. During onlooker play, by observing and possibly mimicking the play of others, your child is building their own skills. They may be looking up from using their own toys while engaging in onlooker play, but this type of play is about observing rather than playing alongside others, which is called parallel play see more below.
However, children in onlooker play may comment on the observed activities. They are learning about how other kids play and interact and preparing themselves for their eventual participation in such group play. Put two 3-year-olds in a room together and this is what you are likely to see: the two children having fun, playing side by side in their own little worlds. It doesn't mean that they don't like one another, they are just engaging in parallel play.
This type of play begins around age two and differs from playing together in that neither child tries to influence the play of the other. Despite having little overt social contact between playmates, children in parallel play learn quite a bit from one another like awareness of different types of play. Like each of the other stages, this type of play is viewed as an important, progressive bridge to the later stages of play. Many types of activities, from drawing to playing with toy cars, can occur during parallel play.
Slightly different from parallel play, associative play, which commonly begins between ages three or four, also features children playing separately from one another. But in this mode of play, they are involved with what the other is doing—think children building a city with blocks. As they build their individual buildings, they are talking to one another and engaging each other but primarily working on their own.
Typically, this form of play phases out by age five. This is an important stage of play because it helps little ones develop a whole host of skills, such as socialization what should we build now? Cooperative play is where all the stages come together and children truly start playing together. Typically occurring between four and five years of age, this is the predominant type of play seen in groups of older preschoolers on up or in younger preschoolers who have older siblings or have been around a lot of children.
However, the earlier stages of play will still be used to varying degrees by these children at other times as well. Cooperative play uses all of the social skills your child has been working on and puts them into action. This stage of play can encompass many different types of play described in more detail below. Whether they are building a puzzle together , playing a board game , or enjoying an outdoor group activity, cooperative play sets the stage for future interactions as your child matures into an adult.
While the above stages are important and vital to your child's social development, there are other key types of play that also contribute to a child's development. These kinds of play usually show up once a child begins to engage in cooperative play and include the following:. Play is a tremendously important part of child development that should be encouraged and supported. However, note that children need their own time and space to learn these skills, which will come independently.
The lessons learned from play are not something for parents to actively teach. Instead, the beauty is that children discover these gems as they play their games, all in good fun. Unoccupied play Birth-3 months : Makes a lot of movement with their arms, legs, hands, feet, etc. They are learning about and discovering how their body moves. Solitary play Birth-2 years : Content to play alone. They are not interested in playing with others quite yet. Next, associative play begins to include true social interactions when children engage in a common activity and exchange toys and comment on the behavior of each other.
Finally, at around 5 years old, cooperative play emerges, when children begin to work together and assume reciprocal roles while pursuing shared goals during their play. For example, children take leadership roles, discuss rules, and negotiate responsibilities. This cooperative play is social play of the most complex type. Cooperative play is especially important because it allows children to learn social rules such as sharing, turn taking, cooperation, and dealing with disagreements.
Also, this type of play leads to the development of meaningful friendships.
0コメント