The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Education

Psychoanalytic, Attachment, and Developmental Perspectives

Marilyn Charles, Jill Bellinson, Marilyn Charles, Jill Bellinson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351718301
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Grundschulbildung

The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Education presents various theories of play and demonstrates how it serves communicative, developmental, and relational functions, highlighting the importance and development of the capacity to play in terms useful to early childhood educators. The book explicitly links trauma, development, and interventions in the early childhood classroom specifically for teachers of young children, offering accessible information that can help teachers better understand the meanings of children's expressive acts.

Contributors from education, psychoanalysis, and developmental psychology explore techniques of play, how cultural influences affect how children play, the effect of trauma on play, factors that interfere with the ability to play, and how to apply these ideas in the classroom. They also discuss the relevance of ideas about playfulness for teachers and other professionals.

The Imprtance of Play in Early Childhood Education will be of great interest to teachers, psychoanalysts, and psychotherapists as well as play therapists and developmental psychologists.

PART I

Theories of play

1

CHILD DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PLAY

Stephanie Creekpaum

Play is important in children’s development, as they learn about the world through play (Sherkow, 2004). In the earliest play relationships between a caretaker and a child, caretakers help children cope with their emotions (Gilmore, 2011). As adults, we have the experience and the language to understand emotions that children are not yet able to process. We are able to understand that when children cry when their mothers drop them off for day care they are sad or anxious to see her go. Through play with another trusted adult we are able to help these children calm and through these interactions, children learn more about themselves, their feelings, and being in relationships with others (Bergman, 1993).

The earliest forms of pretend play begin when children are about a year old. Around this age, children are exploring their worlds through sensory and motor movements (Fischer, 1980). They look closely at items, hold them in their hands, feel their shape, bang them on things, feel them in their mouths, etc. Around a year old, they also start to use objects to imitate things that are familiar to them (Fein, 1975), such as pretending to drink from a cup. For children around a year old, it is important that the objects they use in play are similar to the objects they use in the real world. They can pretend to use a play phone to talk, but they cannot yet use a banana in a similar manner. However, starting around 18 months, they begin to move from playing with items in a functional way (e.g., pushing a car or rolling a ball) to a more creative and representative way (e.g., putting a bowl on their heads as a hat) (Ungerer et al., 1981; Pederson, Rook-Green, & Elder, 1981). Around this age, children are not only starting to move toward having objects represent other things, but they are also beginning to incorporate others more into their play (Fein, 1975). A child may now use that banana to have a conversation with mama and then pretend to feed a doll their favorite food.

When children are around 2 years old, through their experience playing, they have a greater understanding that they are separate and independent from other things and people around them (Watson & Fischer, 1977). Very young children do not have a sense that others and their surroundings are separate from themselves. When they cry because they cannot reach the toy that fell on the ground and their mother hands it back to them, they experience it as magically appearing again as though they made it happen. They do not understand that someone outside of themselves, i.e., mother, was the one who saved the day. Everything that happens is experienced as though the child caused it to happen. However, through play, toddlers start to experience others and the world as separate from themselves. When they cry because they cannot reach their toys that they threw behind the couch and their mother retrieves it, they are delighted not only to have their toys back but also because they can now experience the connection that it was in fact mother who saved the day.

Also, around 2 years old, children begin to recreate the actions of others, primarily family members (Bretherton, 1989). They now start to pretend to shave like dad or cook a pie like grandma. Children are able to start imitating these adult actions because they have developed a mental image or representation of others through memories they have with them (Mayes & Cohen, 1992). They use memories of their interactions with others in their lives (e.g., parents, grandparents, siblings, day care providers) to form an image in their mind of that person. Once they have this mental image of a familiar person, they are then able to represent this person and their actions in order to pretend to act like them and play in a similar manner. For example, after children see their mothers driving them to day care every day, they may start to pretend they are driving their stuffed animals to day care. They have memories of all of the times their mothers drive them to day care, and from these memories, they have developed a mental image of what mother is like when driving to day care. With these memories and representation, children can now bring up the mental image of their mother even when not actively driving to day care to be able to re-enact her actions and this routine in play.

In addition, once children have the capacity to develop these mental images, they are able to bring up the memories they have with their caretakers to help them cope when separated from them (Mayes & Cohen, 1992). Children who have reached this developmental stage are able to bring up the mental image of their mother signing their favorite lullaby or their father giving them the biggest bear hug when they drop them off at day care to help them cope with being separated from them. They also start to use play to master their feelings around separations, and they may play through the same script or scene repeatedly as they work through their feelings (Lillard, 1993). Let’s go back to the example of children re-enacting mother driving to day care with their stuffed animals. After children drop off the stuffed animals at day care, the animals may start to cry that they do not want mommy to go. Children who have a mental image of their mothers comforting them may then start to comfort their animals saying, “Mommy will be back. I love you.” Children may also express their anger that mommy is leaving them and have the animals scream and hit or they may express their fear and have the animals cower and hide. They may go back and forth between re-enacting a comforting mother and their anger or fear, playing through their feelings while also using the mental image to help cope.

Children may also attempt to cope with their feelings about separations and reunions through games such as peek-a-boo and hide and seek (Bergman, 1993; Mayes & Cohen, 1992; Neubauer, 1987). These games are a safer place to re-enact these separations as the child has more control over the separation. In these games, children tend to take the lead in determining when it is ok to hide and be separated. They then also use the mental image of their caretaker to tolerate the separation. In these playful games of separation and reunion, children are able to learn to rely on others returning and also on themselves being able to tolerate the separation, and this is all made possible by their ability to develop mental images or representations of their loved ones through the memories they have of them being comforting and consistent in meeting their needs. Through play, children are not only able to remember positive interactions with their loved ones to help them cope, but they also use playful games to master feelings around separations. These games are safe ways to work through these feelings because when the child pulls down the sheet, they see the smiling face they love. In this way, they learn that even when separated, this separation does not last forever.

In addition, around 2 years old, with this greater sense of themselves as separate from others, children start looking toward their caretakers for clues on what to think about a situation. When they trip over their truck, fall and bump their knee, they often look to their caretakers first to see their reactions before starting to cry or getting back up to run around again. This is not because their knee does not actually hurt. It likely does hurt, but children are learning how to cope with situations by looking at the reactions of those around them. If their caregiver looks very anxious about the fall, screams and runs after the child, the child sees this is a scary situation and begins to cry loudly. If on the other hand, the caregiver calmly acknowledges that the child bumped a knee and provides comfort and assurance that the child is okay, the child will get a kiss from mommy and continue to play. The child in this situation is learning how to cope in these situations. They are also building an ability to imagine others’ thoughts and feelings. In this way, they are starting to understand not only that others are separate from them, but also that they have separate thoughts and feelings from them (Mayes & Cohen, 1992).

It is also around this time that children may develop an imaginary friend. Through imaginary friends, children are playing with the idea of being separate from others and having different thoughts and feelings, while still being in control of this creation (Mayes & Cohen, 1992), and as they grow in their independence from their parents, they may increasingly have times where they want others to watch them play rather than interacting or seemingly interrupting (Sherkow, 2004). Thus, having imaginary friends is seen in typical child development. One in which the child is playing alone without being alone. Children can progress in developing more socially based play through imaginary friends. In a stage where they may not yet be ready to negotiate the compromises that happen in social play, children can practice playing with others in a situation they still have control over.

When children are 2 years old, they begin to pretend that dolls can perform an action, and by 3 years old, children start to have dolls perform several actions related to a role they are playing (Watson & Fischer, 1980). Thus, children move from pretending a doll is talking to pretending a doll is a teacher in a classroom who is teaching others. When children are around 3 ½ years old, they understand the meaning of objects and are able to pretend without needing to have an actual object in reality (Elder & Peterson, 1978). They can now pretend to be talking on a phone without needing a toy phone or pretend to drink from a cup without needing an empty cup. Thus, as children’s understanding of the meaning of objects grows, they are better able to symbolize an object without needing it to exist in reality (Ungerer et al., 1981). Around 4 years old, children start to act out social roles (Watson & Fischer, 1980), such as playing doctor, and around 5 years old, children engage in more coordinated and complex play with others (Lillard, 1993). Thus a 5-year-old can coordinate a play scene with her friends by pretending she is the doctor and the other children are the patients who need to come to the clinic to get a shot. By the time children are 6 years old, they are often able to have one figure pretend to perform several roles at the same time (Watson & Fischer, 1980). In this play development, a child may pretend to be the parent bringing the child to the clinic one moment and the nurse assisting the doctor the next. Their desire to switch and try on different roles is an important stage of development and should be encouraged. It also allows for children to continue working on playing with others, as the success of social play depends on the playmates’ ability to cooperate in developing the shared meaning (Gilmore, 2011).

Throughout play development, children are moving from solitary play to playing with others. Up until children are about 2 years old, they tend to play alone. They initially examine the sensory and motor aspects of toys and then begin to engage in early play, such as pushing cars and drinking from cups, but this play tends to be solitary. Children then move to engaging in parallel play around the ages of 2 to 3. During this phase of development, children play beside others, usually with the same toys, but not interacting. For example, they see another child playing with cars, they sit down to also play with the cars but do not talk to or play with the other child. This then progresses into cooperative play with others around the age of 4. Children can engage in pretend play alone, beside others and with others. When playing with others, children can impersonate other people, such as imitating actions of adults in their lives or actions of favorite characters on shows, and they can play other roles, such as pretending to be a teacher and teaching other students. This latter form of pretending can be done alone, as the child plays the teacher and teaches to his stuffed animals, or with others, as the child plays the teacher and teaches her friends who are playing the role of the students (Lillard et al., 2013).

Now that we’ve explored some of the stages of development through play, let’s look at some of the different forms of play. Play can take the form of unstructured free play, which is created by the child, and semi-structured play, which is guided by parent and child (Milteer & Ginsburgh, 2012). In free play, children follow their own line of creativity. In semi-structured play, another individual comes in to suggest different play themes or roles, working with the child to incorporate them into the child’s play (Lillard et al., 2013). For example, in free play, a child may pretend to be a lion that is being chased by a spaghetti monster who the lion then eats. In this play, the caregiver would not suggest that she is also a lion and not a spaghetti monster but would go along with the roles the child creates. In semi-structured play, the caregiver may suggest that she is another lion and they are running in a field chasing each other. For this situation to work, though, it is important to remember that it is guided by both the adult and the child. The child and the playmate (i.e., the caregiver) need to both agree on these roles or the play is likely to stop prematurely and in an unsatisfying way.

There are multiple roles that objects may take when a child is pretending. Children can use an object based on what it is. For example, they may take an empty cup from a cabinet and pretend to be pouring and then drinking apple juice, so they are using the cup for what it is actually intended. Children may pretend one object represents something else. With this, they may find the empty box from the new vacuum, get inside it, and pretend they are driving a car to go to the store. The box now represents their car. Children can pretend an inanimate object has living characteristics. They may find the broom in the closet and start riding it around the room, pretending it is a horse as it bucks and neighs, so the broom has the characteristics of a horse. Children can pretend they are doing something that does not exist in reality. For example, they may pretend they have magical powers and are able to make things they love appear and things they do not like disappear. They may also reference a situation that is not actually happening currently (Matthews, 1977). Children who wish they were fishing can sit on a chair in their living room and pretend they are on a boat in the ocean, catching the biggest fish.

While toddlers learn about rules and boundaries through play, older children use play to break free from the rules and reality (Sherkow, 2004). Children can use play to safely separate themselves from reality, explore their thoughts and feelings, satisfy needs that they may not be able to do in reality because of rules, and work through different situations. A child who is not allowed to have a cookie before dinner can go to his pretend kitchen and make himself 20 cookies and pretend to eat them all. A child who is fearful of an upcoming doctor’s appointment because of a shot can put on her doctor’s stethoscope and give her teddy shot after shot, reminding teddy each time to think about a favorite memory and that teddy is brave.

Children have control over their play world in a way they do not in reality, and they base their play more on reality or fantasy as they play through different situations, thoughts, and feelings (Neubauer, 1987). If a situation is challenging or emotionally intense, they may rely more on fantasy as a way to have greater control and distance while they work through their thoughts and feelings. As the situation becomes more manageable and understandable, their play may shift to being more reality based. Through play, children can explore different meanings of a situation and change the outcome or the way things are represented (Lillard, 1993). This allows them a space to safely explore, work through, and cope with these thoughts and feelings. Children at times need to change the facts of a situation and use fantasy to make it more manageable for them emotionally as they find ways to work through their feelings and come to a better understanding of what a situation means. As children do not have the same level of cognitive processing adults do, there are times where they need to rely on fantasy to figure out a situation. It is not because they are lying. It is because they do not yet understand something, usually a highly emotional situation to them, and they need the space of fantasy to protect themselves from feelings they do not understand as they work on understanding. A child who is worried about what it means to have to move can practice his feelings about it through play. He can explore the different ways a house looks and the different ways a family occupies it. Depending on how anxiety-provoking this situation is, he may begin by pretending it is a different family—maybe it is his stuffed animals who are moving or he may pretend ...