Chapter 11: Peers, Play, and Popularity

1. Chapter 11: Peers, Play, and Popularity Play By Kati Tumaneng (for Drs. Cook and Cook)

2. Play • A pleasurable activity that is actively engaged in on a voluntary basis, is intrinsically motivated, and contains some nonliteral element (Hughes, 1999). • Through play, children develop muscle coordination, social interaction skills, logical reasoning and problem-solving skills, and the ability to think about the world as it really is and as it could be.

3. The Social Levels of Play: Parten’s (1932) Classic Study • Observations of 42 children ages 1-5 years as they engaged in free play at their preschool. • Six levels of play: • Unoccupied behavior • Onlooking • Solitary play • Parallel play • Associative play • Cooperative play • Connection between ages and types of play; lower levels among younger children.

4. Types of Play from Infancy through Adolescence • Sensorimotor Play in Infancy – Play that evolves mostly around the practice of sensory activity and the development of new motor actions. • At first, infants discover their own bodies. • 3 months – Interact with objects in the world. • 6 months – Incorporate every object into action pattern they prefer at the moment. • 9 months – Pay more attention to specific features of objects and begin treating objects differently (Hughes, 1999; Ruff, 1984). The Nature of Children’s Play: http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/nature.of.childs.play.html

5. Types of Play from Infancy through Adolescence • Symbolic play – Play where children use make-believe and pretend to embellish objects and actions. • Begins to emerge between 12 and 14 months. • By 2-3 years, can pretend an object is something else. • Sociodramatic play – Play that involves acting out different social roles or characters. • Becomes common by age 3. • Functions (Hughes, 1999): • Imitation of adults • Reenactment of family relationships • Expression of needs • Outlet for forbidden impulses • Reversal roles

7. Types of Play from Infancy through Adolescence • By age 6, most children have entered the stage of concrete operational thought. • Become more logical and realistic, and fantasy and pretend tend to give way to seeing the world more as it really is. • Push the limits of skills and demonstrate their mastery by performing stunts that become increasingly complex and dangerous. • More active in organized sports.

8. Types of Play from Infancy through Adolescence • Leisure Time in Adolescence • Shift from concrete and realistic thought of the grade school child to the more hypothetical and idealistic thought characteristics of the formal operational stage. • In some sense this represents a return to fantasy of earlier years, but this time adolescents use their imaginations to speculate about how the world could or should be (Hughes, 1999). • More active pursuits.

9. Common Activities in Adolescence (Anderson, Huston, Schmitt, Linebarger, & Wright, 2001)

10. Trends in Play and Appropriate Toys and Materials for Different Age Groups

11. Cultural Differences in Play • The same developmental progression probably occurs in all cultures but culture can influence where they play, whom they play with, and the main themes in their play. • Opportunity and central themes and styles of social interactions that occur during play vary across diverse cultures. • Space available also varies. • Through play, children learn the skills that are important for their culture. • Play effects social themes and interaction. • E.g., children of US found to be more aggressive (Farver & Welles-Nystrom, 1997). Culture and Development in Children's Play http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/ehyun/10041/culture_and_development_in.htm

12. Picture on Slide 6: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 445). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. • Graph on Slide 9: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 446). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. • Table on Slide 10: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 447). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. • All other images retrieved from Microsoft PowerPoint Clip Art.