Para eLink: Where Minnesota's Paraprofessionals Learn Online

competencies | tutorial | glossary | help | site index

EC-K1: Awareness of the basic developmental stages within domains of motor, cognitive, communication, and social-emotional development for infants and young children ages birth to 5.


	1	1R	2	2R	3	3R	4	4R	5	5R	5a	5aR	6	6R

Play and Social Development

A boy runs with a rubber ball, laughing Many of children's social relationships take place in the context of play. Educators often refer to Parten's (1932) six classifications of play, listed below, to describe children's play or social behavior.

Parten's Play Classifications

Unoccupied behavior . The child isn't engaging in any obvious play activity or social interaction, but watches anything that is of interest at the moment. When nothing is interesting, the child will play with his or her own body, move around from place to place, follow the teacher, or stay in one spot and look around the room.
Onlooker behavior. The child spends most of his or her time watching other children play. The child may talk to the playing children, ask questions, or give suggestions, but doesn't participate in the play. The child remains within speaking distance so that what goes on can be seen and heard. This onlooker behavior indicates a strong interest in a group of children, in contrast with unoccupied behavior, which shows no interest in any particular group of children, but only shifting interest in what happens to be exciting at the moment.
Solitary play . This is play activity that is conducted independently of what others are doing. The child plays with toys that differ from those used by other children in the area within speaking distance and makes no effort to get closer to them or to speak to them. The child is focused entirely on his or her own activity and is not influenced by other children or their activities.
Parallel play . The child is playing close to other children, but is still playing independent of them. The child uses toys like ones being used by others, but uses them as he or she wishes. The child is neither influenced by nor tries to influence the others. The child plays beside rather than with other children.
Associative play . The child plays with other children. Play material and equipment are shared; the children may follow each other around. There may be attempts to control who may or may not play in a group, although such control efforts are not strongly asserted. The children engage in similar but not necessarily identical activity, and there's no organization of activity or individuals. Each child does what he or she essentially wants to do without putting the group's interests first.
Cooperative or organized play . The key word in this category is organized. The child plays in a group that is established for a particular purpose: making some material product, gaining some competitive goal, or playing formal games. There is a sense of "we" where one definitely belongs or does not belong to the group. There is also some leadership present—one or two members who direct the activity of the others. This requires some division of labor, different roles for the group members, and the support of a child's efforts by the other children.

Most children will show each type of play throughout their childhood. However, the first three types of play are more common for very young or socially delayed children. As children get older, their play typically becomes more sophisticated and social.

Information in this lesson is used with permission from:

Parten, M. B. (1932). Social participation among preschool children. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 17, 243-269.

Rush, K. (1999). Early childhood: The role of the paraprofessional. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration.