Discussion

Play is activity that has no long-range goal, although it might have some immediate objectives (to hop from here to there; to make a sand hill; to get a high score on a computer or video game). Play is what children (and grown-ups) do for the fun of it. But that play has no ultimate purpose does not mean it is unimportant and useless. Play, explains Nielsen (2011), is one of the fundamental building blocks of children's—and cultures'—development.

Categories of Play

There are two main types of play: practice play (also called sensorimotor play or sometimes exploratory play) and pretend play (sometimes called imaginative play).

Practice play is mainly physical activity. It is the kind of play often evident among young animals (for example, a kitten chasing a ball). Practice play involves manipulating objects or performing activities simply for the sensations that result, and is found in activities such as skipping, hopping, jumping, waving, and countless other games. It can be either solitary or social.

Pretend play, which can also be solitary or social, is imaginative play in which children pretend an object or activity is not what it actually is. It is present even in infants as young as 1, where it usually takes the form of simulating common activities—for example, pretending to eat or pretending to sleep. But by age 2, there is almost no limit to the make-believe games that are possible as children learn to transform objects, people, and activities into whatever they wish.

Pretend play is an activity that enables children to think about themselves and about others as thinkers, as organisms capable of having different states of mind. When mother puts a banana to her ear and says "Hello," 4-year-old Nancy recognizes at once that the banana is a pretend telephone. But there is no confusion here between reality and fantasy; she still knows very clearly that this is a banana. What is also clear to Nancy, however, is that mother can have different states of mind, and that she can, too. Nancy has begun to develop a theory of mind. An important aspect of this theory is the recognition of others and of self as thinkers capable of deliberately selecting and manipulating ideas—even pretend ideas. Here, in the preschool period, is the dawning of what psychologists label metacognition—knowing about knowing.

The Real and the Fantastic

When they make their first forays into purely imaginative play, preschoolers have not always learned the distinctions between reality and fantasy. Three-year-old Mollie wants to play a pretend game with the other nursery school children, but she knows some pretend bad thing is going to happen. But, as Paley (1986) puts it, "what if the bad thing doesn't know it's pretend?" (p. 45).

"Go to sleep, Mollie," Libbie orders. "There might be something dangerous. You won't like it."

"I know it," Mollie says. "But I got a bunk bed at home and I sleep there."

"Bunk beds are too scary," Amelia says.

"Why are they?" Mollie looks worried.

"It's a monster, Mollie. Hide!"

But Mollie protests that there are no monsters in her house today. Still, she is unwilling to take any chances:

"I'm going to be a statue," Mollie whispers. "So he won't see me."

Now Frederick comes roaring in on all fours.

"I'm a lion. I'm roaring," he says.

"Is he scaring you, Mollie?"

"No."

"Is anyone scaring you?"

"The bunk bed," she answers solemnly. (Paley, 1986, p. 45)

Mollie, like many other 3-year-olds, can create her own ghosts and monsters, and she has developed her own ways of dealing with them. If they threaten too frighteningly, she can become a statue so they won't see her, or she can hide next to the teacher—or she can, ultimately, resort to her knowledge that the monsters are pretend monsters.

But when others create monsters, Mollie can never be quite certain that they are truly pretend pretend. Perhaps one of them might be real pretend.

We don't suffer from the same limitations as does Mollie (nor do most of us enjoy quite as boundless an imagination). We have somehow learned to tell the difference between fantasy and reality; we can dismiss our monsters if they frighten us. Can't we? (See In the Classroom: Can Wishes Make Dreams Come True?)

Daydreams and Imaginary Playmates

One type of imaginative play that becomes increasingly prevalent as preschoolers age is daydreaming. Unlike other types of imaginative play in which children actively engage in fantasy, daydreaming is the imagining without the activity. Daydreaming is a normal and healthy activity. And although daydreaming is a form of play, it can also be a coping strategy, a way of dealing with disappointments and with emotional upset and turmoil. It is rarely a cause for concern (Ferrie, 2010).

Daydreaming, which is a solitary type of imaginative play, sometimes gives rise to the imaginary companion (or imaginary playmate), a constant friend to a large number of preschool children (Taylor, Shawber, & Mannering, 2009). In fact, one study found that almost 50 percent of 1800 children aged 5 to 12 had present or past experiences with imaginary friends (Pearson et al., 2001). These imaginary friends, complete with names and relatively stable personality characteristics, are spoken to, played with, teased, and loved by their creators. They are given names, forms, and places—and young preschoolers will seldom admit their imaginary nature. In one study, Taylor, Cartwright, and Carlson (1993) interviewed a dozen 4-year-olds who had imaginary playmates, asking them to describe their imaginary friends, which they did quite readily. The remarkable thing is that when these children were interviewed again seven months later, their descriptions of their imaginary playmates had scarcely changed; they were every bit as stable as descriptions of real friends.

There is little information about the role imaginary companions might play in preschoolers' development. However, it seems clear that although children who have imaginary companions act as though they are real, most realize they are imaginary. There is evidence that children with imaginary companions tend to have a richer fantasy life reflected in their dreams and their games both as children (Bouldin, 2006) and as adults (Gleason, Jarudi, & Cheek, 2003).

Social Play

Social play is any type of play that involves interaction among two or more children. Accordingly, both practice and pretend play can be solitary or social. Skipping rope alone in the darkness of one's basement is a solitary sensorimotor activity; skipping rope out on the playground with others turning the rope, chanting "pepper, pepper, salt and . . ." is a cooperative or social activity. Similarly, creating daydreams in the solitude of one's bedroom is private imaginative play, but playing "let's pretend—you be the driver and I'll be a racecar" is social imaginative play. This type of play has tremendous implications for the child's social development.

Parten (1932) observed the play behavior of groups of nursery school children and identified five different kinds of social play distinguishable in terms of the type and amount of peer interaction involved. Although these appear to develop sequentially, they also overlap so that all forms of play might be present at a given age (Hughes, 2009).

Solitary Play

In solitary play—which is not really social play at all—the child plays alone, often simply engaging in some solitary motor activity. Much of the child's play before age 2 is solitary. And even later, when children engage in many forms of social play, most continue to also play in solitary ways.

Primitive Social Play

There are some forms of primitive social play that sometimes occur even before the age of 6 months. Many of these, such as "peek-a-boo" games, as well as games that include tickling, tossing, and related activities, occur with parents or older children rather than with peers. Others, such as the "chase" and "tag" games of toddlers, are a primitive type of social play.

Onlooker Play

As the label implies, onlooker play consists of a child watching others play, but not participating actively. Onlooker play occurs throughout childhood. Often the onlooker talks with the players, perhaps even giving them advice or asking questions.

Parallel Play

In parallel play, children play side by side, often with similar toys, but do not interact, do not share the activities involved in the game, and do not use any mutually accepted rules. Parallel play is nevertheless an early form of social play because it involves two or more children who play together even if they don't interact. Not surprisingly, in the absence of toys, children are more likely to interact with each other.

Associative Play

With advancing age, children become more interested in interacting with peers and are more likely to include toys in associative play. In associative play, children interact with each other and sometimes share toys, but each child plays independently without mutually accepted goals or rules.

Cooperative Play

Children who play cooperatively help one another in activities that require shared goals and perhaps even a division of roles. Although most research on preschoolers' play behavior indicates that associative and cooperative play are not common before the age of 4 or 5, there is sometimes evidence of cooperation in the play of much younger children, especially if they have had experience with siblings or similar-aged peers. (See Concept Summary: Types of Social Play.)