Health and Social Care's perspective of Categories of Play

Categories of Play

There are 6 categories overall, when it comes to the categories of play.

The first one is Physical which obviously consists of the child’s physiology. So muscle development would be improved through play and this can include gross motor skills as a whole. According to Fisher (2007), running, jumping, climbing skipping, swimming and the use of large equipment e.g. tricycles and other climbing frames and so on, can all help strengthen their leg muscles, arm muscles and others. However, to prevent a child from getting hurt, precautions need to be put in place and remain there at all times, such as impact- absorbent surfaces. Children need to explore the world and they may not have perfect balance yet and therefore, these provisions need to be in place. As the child gets older, games that require more physical energy and agility such as riding bicycles, skipping and games e.g. football, hockey and so on will be more appropriate as to begin with, a child needs to gradually develop their physical abilities, from a very young age, this will mainly include fine motor skills and developing the ability to pick up small objects and place them somewhere else however as the child begins to take their first steps then they will require toys that aid their movement such as walkers that have interactive buttons to encourage play. Further development will include running, jumping and more energetic movements that only bigger team games and larger play equipment will meet the needs of. Therefore the child’s gross and fine motor skills are all met meaning the child develops all areas of their physical requirements. Balance and coordination will also be improved from games that involve movement as well as an awareness of speed, distance and size when playing throw and catch games or catch games, they’ll learn to determine the distance and speed at which the ball is moving; this can be considered intellectual development. Finally, the emotional and social development can include boosting of self- esteem and confidence as the child will experience the satisfaction of doing physical activity and see the benefits of releasing tension and anger and finally, although most the games will not be social, they will still sometimes experience the need of taking turns and sharing with other children. (Moonie 2006)

The next category is Creative and this can include several activities such as painting, drawing, role- play and music and much more. Children learn many skills from this type of play and the opportunities are almost endless as the child can stretch their imagination huge amounts and print their thoughts and feelings down on paper or act them out for friends and family to watch. Children often gain satisfaction from the end result of this type of play as they have a lot of independent play time, in which they can explore what they want, how they want. Colouring books or simply pens and paper are good tools in helping develop a child’s creative play. Children can progress physically from this category of play as painting and drawing will develop their fine motor skills by picking up objects to paint with and it will also develop their hand- eye coordination, improving their writing skills. Next is their intellectual development which includes an improvement over their language skills after language development is influenced from writing skills. Emotional progress includes the child’s ability to begin to show feelings and emotions through role play and acting out their thoughts. Finally, social development will look at the way a child plays with and socializes with others when acting out things or drawings things and their decisions in sharing their materials with others but also whether they’re well- mannered around others and are patient in terms of helping each other and playing with one another. (Moonie 2006)

Next is Imaginative and this category involves pretend play, make believe and role play and so on so the imaginative and creative categories can go hand in hand. The child is able to act out their fears and anxieties therefore allowing them to express any emotions they find it difficult to talk about or can’t put the words together to actually present their emotions. Not only this, but children can use games to enhance these skills, for instance, Charades will require a child to act certain words therefore learning words and their associating objects in the meantime. The challenge of imagining different surroundings, or imagining you’re someone else or even bringing to life their favourite toys and conveying that in a role- play is something they enjoy trying and it is also simply so fun which is why children often do it. This category can be associated with the creative category however it looks more in detail at role play and a child’s ability to imagine other scenario’s and events as opposed to their real life. Physical development can include fine and gross motor skills as the children can be walking or running around however, toys such as toy kitchen’s and shops will include small objects they’ll be picking up. Intellectual is the key area of development as their ability imagine other things will be discovered and encouraged and their creativity will shine through. Children can also develop their confidence which is emotional progress as well as learn about other people’s cultures or other people’s experiences as they socialise with others through imaginative play. (Moonie 2006)

The fourth stage is Exploratory, in which children seem to have a curiosity for everything they come across and this occurs in every child right from birth. Fisher (2007) describes this category as innate and the opportunity to explore in a safe and secure environment should be provided. A child finds it most exciting and will learn more from something if they find it first hand and as Fisher (2007) says, it is important for children to find out about the world for themselves. Simple toys such as teddies and other stuffed toys or building blocks and so on can be useful in this case as they have freedom to explore the toys and use them how they wish, giving them independence to make their own decisions. Their physical development through exploratory play will mainly include gross motor skills and sensory skills as they explore on their own accord. Intellectual development will include the ability to identify an object’s weight, size, shape and the distance at which an object is at, they also begin to understand cause and effect. Emotional development will be similar to physical play as they will gain the satisfaction of doing the activity but also by exploring things themselves and dealing with any accidents they come across from independent learning. (Moonie 2006)

The next stage is Manipulative. This leads on from physical but looks closer at the hand and the fine muscles within them and other fine motor skills a child can develop. The control a child has over grasping objects, holding and placing those objects and the precision to which they place an object will all be refined. For instance, games in which you need to slot a certain shaped object into the matching shaped hole, is a useful game for a child when it comes to Manipulative play. The object is small so the muscles in their hand will be strengthened and developed but also the precision to which they place the object in the appropriate hole will improve over time too. Writing is another part of this stage as that is included in fine motor skills as it requires strengthening and steadiness of the muscles in both hands. Physical development includes sensory skills again but also fine motor skills as the manipulation of toys will require the ability to move the object around their hands and squeeze it and shape it with their fingers. Intellectual development is less important here however they will still learn to identify colours, the shape and size of an object and the logical thinking in terms of the volume of an object. (Moonie 2006) Conservation is also developed, in terms of a child realising that an object that can change shape and can be manipulated e.g. Play- Doh, is consistently the same size and volume despite changing shape. Emotional development will improve their self- esteem and confidence as their understanding will improve and they’ll begin to experience success and failures as they slowly progress through the learning curve. Social development includes sharing, taking tunes and interacting with other children similarly to other categories however independent play is more common in this area of play.

The final stage is Social which is simply that the child will begin to enjoy the company of other children, as Fisher (2007) says. From that, they will then learn to cooperate and share with their peers around them and a strong relationship between language development and social play will arise, so the child’s communication will improve greatly through social play as it is necessary when around others to talk to them and interact with them verbally and as a child, physically. Any game that requires interaction which is most games, will help a child understand the concept of taking turns and listening to others when it is their turn, helping them respect those around them and further build their social skills. Physical development from the social category of play can include gross and fine motor skills but as the child gets older, they’re more inclined to play with other children and this play will take the form of large group games such as football and baseball which are commonly played at school too. Intellectual development will provide the child with understanding rules of games and how to follow commands but also the concept of time and space. Linking intellectual with social, the children will learn the consequences of anti- social behaviour and how other children may feel if they’re not involved in these group games. Finally emotional development will include the feelings of winning and losing; the satisfaction of winning out of a whole group but also the ability to suppress the feelings of losing in a large group. Consequences will also be learnt when a child try’s to cheat and the fact they will be looked down upon after showing this behaviour.

Stages of play:

Solitary play: children play on their own up to 2 years and they’re not interested at all in interacting with other children as they’re only able to think of themselves. Because of the lack of social play, exploring the environment alone is key to their development and they’re happy to do this alone. Language skills haven’t been developed yet which is why social interacts aren’t common. Children may seek reassurance from adults when playing and they will be happy to play adult- led games such as peek-a-boo. Parallel play: children are more aware of each other during parallel play however they don’t necessarily interact with others, they simply play alongside them. Children acknowledge them but don’t interact as they are ego-centric at this stage. Children could be participating in the same activity such as, play in a sand pit however they’ll concentrate fully on their own actions.

Looking- on play: this stage of play usually occurs at around 3 years of age and it’s where they carefully observe another child’s play and their behaviour and instead of copying them when their nearby, they’ll save that knowledge of what they have seen and copy their behaviour when their alone so independent and isolated play is still the ideal play for them at this age. This observing of other children gives them the confidence to try new stuff and copy similar activities.

Joining- in play: From around 3 years onwards children will join in games organised by adults however they don’t take responsibility for themselves. Joining- in play allows children to independently learn the advantages of play and discover how interesting it is. From this stage the child will begin to develop social and interaction skills and play games with their ‘friends’ but they still have a lot of progress to go in terms of co-operating fully e.g. sharing and taking turns.

Co-operative play: this is the final section of play in which children happily play actively together and they will take turns and share from about 3 and half years and onwards. They’ll also co-operate with each other by sharing ideas of games to play and taking on different roles. The sharing may only last for short periods of times because there could often be arguments as children like independence and control over their own play. Co-operative play helps children learn to be honest and not cheat and they’ll understand the consequences of this and anti- social behaviour e.g. kicking won’t be tolerated. By the age of 7 co-operative play is more common and games with rules will be brought in and when asked about it, children will be able to explain the rules of the game they are playing.

GCE A2 Level, Health and Social Care, Neil Moonie, 2006, Heinemann