Social Play for Children and What It Means

.....parents of young children, it is important to know how your child interacts and plays and what it means. Play is important because it helps a child's mind to develop and also the child's sense of self and motor skills to begin to grow. Children learn social skills through play, creativity through play; they learn about themselves -- their strong suits, what they can do, sense of confidence, and more.

You can encourage and support play for children by taking them to the park where other children play. Your kids can watch, they can mimic, they can interact, or they play together cooperatively -- it all depends upon the stage of development they are in. These stages are also fluid and there is no need to think that they are in one stage at one time. Children will slide in and out of stages as their minds grow and process and reinforce. All the 6 stages of behavior of play are normal in children and helpful in the child's development. You can let your children play alone, with others, watch, or participate -- at parks, museum centers, and any other age appropriate place (Parten, 1933).

UNIT 5 DISCUSSION

Both children from both age groups ignored the two dots and drew around them. The child from the first age bracket (3-6) essentially scribbled across the page and did not draw any image that he could describe. The older child drew a picture of her family but the dots did not serve any purpose in the image. This surprised me because I thought that at least the older child would incorporate the dots into the picture but she did not. However, neither child seemed interested in the dots. The younger child was not even interested in drawing a picture. The older child was and drew her family, which was appropriate I felt.

UNIT 6 DISCUSSION

For this exercise, I had my 6-8 students dance to a piece of classical music. I did not tell them what type of dance to do or how to move, so this allowed them to be creative. They could also work on balance, timing and other motor skills.

This exercise is performed by turning on a recording of a piece of classical music, such as a symphony by Mozart or Beethoven. The type of classical music chosen will probably have an effect on the type of dance the children do: for example, Mozart is melodic and Beethoven is very rhythmic.

Remove chairs so that students can move about in the center of the room. They should have lots of space to move about. Turn on the recording and let them dance.

The goal of this exercise is to encourage creative demonstration, motion skills, and listening.

References

Parten, M. (1933). Social play among preschool children. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28(2): 136-147.