PLAY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

In 1933, Parten categorized the nature of children’s social play between two and five years. We still view her categories of child's play as a meaningful framework within which to examine the increasing social maturity of the child.   Her theory was based on the following developmental stages:

 Solitary play   The child plays alone and independently even if surrounded by other children. It is mentioned as typical of two-year-olds' play;

Parallel play   The child plays independently at the same activity, at the same time, and in the same place. The child is aware of the presence of peers but each child plays separately.

Associate play   The child is still focused on a separate activity but there is a considerable amount of sharing, lending, taking turns, and attending to the activities of one's peers.
It is described as a common among three- and especially four-year-olds' play.

Cooperative play   The child can play with others in a truly cooperative way. They can organize their play and/or activity cooperatively with a common goal and be able to differentiate and assign roles. It is described as a higher level of play that represents the child's social and cognitive maturity.

What does this mean?

This framework gives us an opportunity to understand a child's growing maturity in taking into consideration the presence and needs of others during play. It also means that we cannot expect a three year old to typically play cooperatively with others. In observing children playing, it can also be noticed that children may move in and out of these different kinds of play.

What is an adult's role in this development? We know that young children know how to imitate behavior. When you have a child's attention, for example, Mom and Dad can model behavior like taking turns, lending and sharing toys. The child is more likely to pick up on these behaviors then. Obviously, trying this out with a two year old may be futile, but closer to three, some of these behaviors can be modeled for effective imitation by the child.