Play is a child’s natural innate way of exploring the world around them, their desire to explore is aided through play and helps stimulate their senses through real life interaction. Many psychologists agree that play is crucial in the early years to higher levels of cognitive, social and academic development and without play development would be delayed, but play is also essential in the later years. Smith 2010 identified many types of play including physical play, pretend play and rough and tumble play. There is a strong link between play and developing socially, developing language and cognitive competence.
The use of play in supporting a childs de
Crowley has identified the importance of ‘fantasy or pretend play’. This marks the …show more content…
The offspring at a young age of the majority of mammals play (Fagen 1981) and it is becoming more aware that play is also present in non-mammals (Mather and Anderson 1999). This highlights that play must have an evolutionary origin e.g. animals play fighting in order to prepare for hunting and survival. It was initially thought that with humans the purpose of play was for physical development and promoting primitive instincts. Spencer 1873 suggested the surplus energy which argued it was necessary for children to play to release his or her energy. Patrick 1916 argued this and said it was crucial for children to renew and restore energy levels and to keep them active during levels of …show more content…
Practice play which is from 0-2 years, repeating physical tasks. Then symbolic play 2-7 years which is the start of make believe play, and lastly 7 plus engaged in games with rules which helped children’s intellectual, social and cognitive skills.
Play and Development
Smith 2010 identified three models showing the importance of play in development.
Play has no role in development it is a by product of development of other skills and abilities
Secondly, children also learn in other ways e.g observation, error and instruction.
Third model is play is essential for the development in a child, especially in the preschool years but also in the years after this. Smith 2010, said this is the most widely held view of play and coined the term ‘play ethos’.
Smilansky 1968, found that children with low levels of socio dramatic play often correlated with interllectial development in Israli Preschools. The children were given ‘play tutoring which was pretend play support and the encouragement from teachers showed significant improvments on a social, cognitive and in linguistic skills in comparison to students that didn’t .This shows how essential pretend play is and how this form of play is key to an estensive list of skills. It is a facilitator of perspective taking, abstract thought and a key route to higher level