Margaret Watkinson

Play. What is happening when a child is playing. Play occurs in the context of active engagement. As long as a child is interested, actively engaged and partners in responsive interactions, play continues. I would add that if not completely child initiated, it is at the very least child directed and enjoyable.

Developmentally Appropriate Practice, (DAP), basically says that children (of any age!) learn best when:

1. Interested
2. Actively engaged
3. Partners in responsive interactions

Ergo, children who are actively engaged in an activity that they are interested in and that they are able to direct, augment, stop, continue and enjoy are playing and learning. Depending on their developmental stage, they will be using materials, acquiring, practicing and expanding on a variety of skills (motor, cognitive, social and communication skills and concepts) and are socially and emotionally motivated to do so based on where they are developmentally.

Play truly is a child’s opportunity to learn at their own pace. The reason to look at what is being learned and how a child is engaged through their play, is to recognize what that child might need from me, from the environment. To remain engaged, expand on their experience and create just enough ease or challenge to facilitate whatever the child is working to develop is the role of their grown up.

Supporting play appropriately requires that I observe the child at play, provide opportunities for mastery and control at the current level while challenging the child to develop (over time) the next ‘level’ of play.

For example, functional play occurs when a child (or anyone) simply explores the material. Chew it, throw it, squish and bite it, kick it. The reason the child (person) is acting on the material is tied to motor skills and sensory input (if feels good!). An infant at this stage will continue the play engagement because they are working on experiencing their senses and are refining their motor skills in order to do so. A baby can’t suck on a finger or a rattle if they can’t get it to their mouth. Social motivation for this play is that they are happy to be solo/solitary for short periods. They are learning to use their body (sight, touch, taste for example) to experience the material.

Constructive play is about moving objects from one place to another. It doesn’t matter if they are playing with dirt, stones, shoes or gadgets. They are working on skills, specifically motor skills, and the play material is used to that end. Match box cars aren’t for making carwashes or parking lots, the are for dumping. They will practice dumping and dumping and dumping until the “dumping skill” is perfected. The social motivation for this play is “parallel play”. Stairs aren’t for getting from one floor to another, they are for perfecting the “climbing skill”. What adult hasn’t spend an inordinate amount of time perched at the stairway with the 18 month old climber? Children at this stage are happy to play side by side with other children, but don’t care at all if the other child leaves.

My next post will expand on these ideas about play and get into the various levels and types of dramatic play and how dramatic play builds on functional and constructive play.