71 Play

Freud saw play as a means for children to release pent-up emotions and to deal with emotionally distressing situations in a more secure environment. Vygotsky and Piaget saw play as a way of children developing their intellectual abilities (Dyer & Moneta, 2006). Piaget created stages of play that correspond with his stages of cognitive development. The stages are:[1]

Table 9.2 – Piaget’s Stages of Play[2]

Stage

Description

Functional Play

Exploring, inspecting, and learning through repetitive physical activity.

Symbolic Play

The ability to use objects, actions, or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas and may include taking on roles.[3]

Constructive Play

Involves experimenting with objects to build things[4]; learning things that were previously unknown with hands on manipulations of materials.

Games with Rules

Imposes rules that must be followed by everyone that is playing; the logic and order involved forms that the foundations for developing game playing strategy[5]

While Freud, Piaget, and Vygostsky looked at play slightly differently, all three theorists saw play as providing positive outcomes for children.

Mildred Parten (1932) observed two to five year-old children and noted six types of play. Three types she labeled as non-social (unoccupied, solitary, and onlooker) and three types were categorized as social play (parallel, associative, and cooperative). The table below describes each type of play. Younger children engage in non-social play more than those who are older; by age five associative and cooperative play are the most common forms of play (Dyer & Moneta, 2006).[6]

In this video, Dr. Boise reviews the importance of play, Piaget’s stages, and Parten’s stages.

Table 9.3 – Parten’s Classification of Types of Play[7]

Category

Description

Unoccupied Play

Children’s behavior seems more random and without a specific goal. This is the least common form of play.

Solitary Play

Children play by themselves, do not interact with others, nor are they engaging in similar activities as the children around them.

Onlooker Play

Children are observing other children playing. They may comment on the activities and even make suggestions, but will not directly join the play.

Parallel Play

Children play alongside each other, using similar toys, but do not directly act with each other

Associative Play

Children will interact with each other and share toys, but are not working toward a common goal.

Cooperative Play

Children are interacting to achieve a common goal. Children may take on different tasks to reach that goal.

Video briefly illustrates Mildred Parten’s six stages of play.


  1. Child Growth and Development by Jennifer Paris, Antoinette Ricardo, & Dawn Rymond licensed under CC BY 4.0
  2. Cognitive and Social Types of Play (n.d.). Retrieved from https://groundsforplay.com/cognitive-and-social-forms- play
  3. Symbolic Play (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pgpedia.com/s/symbolic-play
  4. Constructive Play (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pgpedia.com/c/constructive-play
  5. Games with Rules (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pgpedia.com/g/games-rules
  6. Lifespan Development - Module 5: Early Childhood by Lumen Learning references Psyc 200 Lifespan Psychology by Laura Overstreet, licensed under CC BY 4.0
  7. Lifespan Development - Module 5: Early Childhood by Lumen Learning references Psyc 200 Lifespan Psychology by Laura Overstreet, licensed under CC BY 4.0

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