Here I explore the functions of play and how children experience it.

1. Play
―Man is fully human when he is at play.‖
Schiller

2. Why do we play?

3. Some of the reasons we play:
 to learn
 to create
 to feel challenged
 to pass time
 to calm and focus ourselves
 to compete
 to cooperate
 to connect
 to enjoy yourselves and others
 to have fun
 to refresh our minds and body

4. Play is:
netain
eylbaonjae
criiintns
taoluyvnr
eontsanpous
lelfiexb
nfu

5. Play is:
Innate - we are born with it!
Enjoyable – there is pleasure
Intrinsic – no goals
Voluntary – we can´t be forced
Spontaneous – just happens
Flexible – no rules
Fun – ooooooooooooooohhh yes!
Cognition and affectivity fuel each other!

6. When children play:
 They test their developing ideas with objects, people, and situations—the
key ability for academic learning.
 They develop many kinds of skills together—physical, social, emotional,
thinking, and language
 They are doing things they are interested in, so they have a natural
motivation to learn
 They develop concepts and skills together. Children are more likely to
remember skills and concepts they have learned by doing things that are
meaningful to them
 They learn from other children and develop social skills by playing together

7. Play
Play is learning about themselves, others and the environment. Children actively
make models of the real world. Children repeat activities over and over as they
investigates and verify information from the environment.
Play relates to and relies upon past experiences and upon previous explorations of
an object. During play, children assume a non literal orientation to the object. Not
on what the object can do, but on what they can do with the object. The rules
of play, made by children, are unique to each imaginative situation.
Play only occurs when children do not feel anxious or threatened, and after they
have become familiar with objects through exploration. Children can not be forced
to play, neither do they need to be taught to do so. When at play children actively
use their hands, head and heart.
Play provides opportunity for adults to share the child´s inner world on the child´s
terms at the child´s pace.
Play is not a break from learning—it’s the way young children learn.

8. While playing, children
Change Combine
Describe
Design Compare
Communicate
Question Criticize
Identify
Organize Evaluate
Listen
Integrate Explain
Order
Simplify Define
Match
Understand Collect
Classify
Penalize Choose
When playing, children enter an altered state.

9. Play and thinking
Play makes the brain grow.
The simpler the toy, the more complex the play.
Play permits children to do something with their thoughts.
How children play is linked to how children think.
Play and language
Play is also important for the development of children's language skills.
Children experiment with language during play and use words to express their
thoughts and ideas. As children become more sophisticated in their play skills,
their language development becomes equally sophisticated. Children use
language during play to solve problems and to communicate their desires.

10. Feelings We Experience in Play (Flow State)
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes play as a flow state that requires just the right balance of
challenge and opportunity.
Involvement
Complete focus and concentration, either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training.
Delight
A sense of bliss and positive detachment from everyday reality.
Clarity
Great inner clarity and a built-in understanding about the state of affairs.
Confidence
An innate sense that the activity is doable and that your skills are adequate to the task.
Additionally, you don‘t feel anxious or bored.
Serenity
A sense of peace and an absence of worries about self.
Timeliness
Thorough focus on the present and a lack of attention to the passing of time.
Motivation
Intrinsic understanding about what needs to be done and a desire to keep the moment of
play moving.

11. Types of play
 Functional play: manipulate objects, repeat actions, imitate actions as
they explore.
 Constructive play: begin to create things with those objects.
 Dramatic play: aware of the relationship of play and the real world.
Substitute objects, actions and language for realistic props. Interact
socially and verbally with other players, starting to negotiate participation
rules.
 Games with rules: learn to accept and adjust with prearranged rules.

12. Functions of dramatic play
① Imitate adults
② Play out real life roles in an intense way
③ Reflect upon relationships and experiences
④ Express pressing needs
⑤ Release socially unacceptable impulses
⑥ Reverse usually taken roles
⑦ Change attitudes and adjust to reality
⑧ Work out problems and try many solutions

13. Categories of social participation
 Non-social interactions
1) Unoccupied behavior (2 to 3 years old): children watch, look, study the
situation, and play with their body.
2) Onlooker( 2.5 to 3 years old): children observe, comment, but do not
enter.
3) Solitary play ( 2.5 years old): children play alone, regardless of other
children. It contributes to cognitive development and the child may have
chosen to be alone, which is fine.

14. Categories of social participation
Social interactions
4) Parallel play (2 years old): children play independently with the
same toy in the same space and assess the situation to which
they are close. Most common.
5) Associative play (4 years old): children play similar activities and
try to control others.
6) Cooperative play (4.5 years old): one or two members direct the
activities of others

15. Moments during play
Definition of a situation: Let´s play house.
Assignment of roles: I´ll be the daddy and you will be the son.
Defining location: This is the kitchen.
Specifying the action plan: I´ll fix supper and you wait.
Assigning props: This is my pan.
Correcting operating procedures and fixing the script: Daddy doesn´t
cook like this.
Directing other´s performance: This is the way to do it.
Invoking rules related to real X pretend context: You don´t really have
to do it.
Termination/ transition: Okay, supper finished.
Commenting interpersonal climate: We are playing, so we are friends,
right?

16. Videos about play
The importance of play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-1O_rBLPU&feature=related
Stages of play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhF6E7zHqWI&feature=related

17. Language play is:
 􀂙 universal
 􀂙 natural
 􀂙 a source of enjoyment
 􀂙 infectious
 􀂙 spontaneous
 􀂙 often unpredictable
 􀂙 exploratory (and therefore risky)
 􀂙 occasional and idiosyncratic
 􀂙 going beyond the norm – clearly distinct from the ―normal‖
use of language

18. Children playing with language
Gibberish
Jabberwocky
Tongue twisters
Riddles
Rhymes
Poems
Jokes
Songs
Catch phrases
Imitation
I see, I see
Crosswords
Wordfind
Hangman
Children invent languages!

19. Some types of language play for adults
Alliteration – words beginning with the same sound/letter
Acrostic – a series or words or lines arranged so that the initial letters make up a
message
Lipogram – avoiding the use of a particular letter
Pangram – constructing a meaningful sentence containing every letter of the
alphabet, using each letter only once
Palindrome – word/sentence which reads the same way in both directions
Anagram – reordering letters in a word/phrase to find another word or phrase;
Homoliteral text: each word must have at least one letter in common with the
previous word
Heteroliteral text: no two consecutive words can have any letter in common
􀂙Word-chain: the final letter of a word must be the same as the first letter of
the following word
Rhopalic: each word of the sentence contains one letter or one syllable
more than the previous word
Transpositional poetry: take someone‘s poem and reshuffle all the words
to make a new poem

20. Play signalling
How do children know we are playing?
Exaggerated actions
Cyclical repetition
Play face
More smiling
Smiling after own action
Look more to the child than to the task
Higher repetition of words
Higher you and me language
More comment noises
Sing-songy quality in one´s voice
Timing is odd when compared to real tasks
Laughter !

21. Laughter brings people closer!
 Laughter has a powerful effect on your health and
well-being.
 A good laugh relieves tension and stress, elevates
mood, enhances creativity and problem-solving
ability, and provides a quick energy boost.
 But even more importantly, laughter brings people
together. Mutual laughter and play are an essential
component of strong, healthy relationships.

22. PCIT
( Parent child interactive therapy)
Do:
Praise – Parent : I love how you are using such nice manners.
Reflection – Child: My favorite is Play Dough.
Parent: Your favorite is Play Dough, I like it too.
Imitation – Do the same thing actions the child is doing.
Description – Parent: you are feeding the baby chickens.
Enthusiasm – What a great play doh you made!
Avoid:
Questions – what do you think we should play now?
Commands – Let´s color now.
Criticism – you know that grass isn´t black, grass should be green.

23. Teachers can:
Let children master toys by making materials available for frequent and longer
periods of time
Provide playthings that kids can use in a variety of ways: blocks, paper and
crayons, dolls and toy animals, balls, playdough, etc.
Encourage kids to play with ordinary household objects like pots and pans and
outdoor materials like sticks and grass.
Provide simple playthings that encourage children to be active and use their
imaginations, not to watch while the toy does tricks.
Create an environment where children feel safe to try new things and where they
feel they have the support of adults.
Respond to play: A teacher sees a child playing and builds vocabulary by
providing new words.
Extend play:a teacher observes a child pretending a chair is a car and ―driving.‖
She encourages imagination by asking ―Where are you going? What do you see
along the way?‖
Guide play: One week a teacher turns the dress-up area into a shoe store.
Children practice language and social skills by acting out ―customers‖ and ―sales
people.
Observe the child’s activities: Seeing a child line up toy dinosaurs by size shows
her understanding of size comparisons and putting things in order..
Take photos: A series of photos of a child‘s block structures over time shows that
she is learning more about spatial relations.

24. ―We don‘t stop playing because we grow old; we
grow old because we stop playing.‖
George Bernard Shaw

25. The Play Types Devised by Bob Hughes, in ‗A playworker‘s Taxonomy of Play Types‘
 • Symbolic Play – play which allows control, gradual exploration and increased understanding without the
risk of being out of one‘s depth.
 • Rough and Tumble Play – close encounter play which is less to do with fighting and more to do with
touching, tickling, gauging relative strength. Discovering physical flexibility and the exhilaration of display.
 • Socio-dramatic Play – the enactment of real and potential experiences of an intense personal, social,
domestic or interpersonal nature.
 • Social Play – play during which the rules and criteria for social engagement and interaction can be
revealed, explored and amended.
 • Creative Play – play which allows a new response, the transformation of information, awareness of new
connections, with an element of surprise.
 • Communication Play – play using words, nuances or gestures for example, mime, jokes, play acting,
mickey taking, singing, debate, poetry.
 • Dramatic Play – play which dramatizes events in which the child is not a direct participator.
 • Deep Play – play which allows the child to encounter risky or even potentially life threatening experiences,
to develop survival skills and conquer fear.
 • Exploratory Play – play to access factual information consisting of manipulative behaviours such as
handling, throwing, banging or mouthing objects.
 • Fantasy Play – play which rearranges the world in the child‘s way, a way which is unlikely to occur.
 • Imaginative Play – play where the conventional rules, which govern the physical world, do not apply.
 • Locomotor Play – movement in any or every direction for its own sake.
 • Mastery Play – control of the physical and affective ingredients of the environments.
 • Object Play – play which uses infinite and interesting sequences of hand-eyen manipulations and
movements.
 • Role Play – play exploring ways of being, although not normally of an intense personal, social, domestic or
interpersonal nature.
 • Recapitulative Play – play that allows the child to explore ancestry, history, rituals, stories, rhymes, fire
and darkness. Enables children to access play of earlier human evolutionary stages.