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September 2023
September 2023
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Understanding the Stages of Play
A researcher named Mildred Parten observed young children at play and proposed 6 stages of play. It is important to consider these stages of play, rather than to have preconceived ideas about what play and young friendships should look like for your child. It is ok when your child comes home from school if they say "nobody" when asked who they played with that day. Use this model to help understand your child's social capability, and when they seem ready, offer social and emotional support to move on to the next stage. Remember! These stages are linear, but children may revert back to prior stages of play even after they have reached a new stage. The ages are suggestions, but ALL children learn and grow at different pace.
Unoccupied Play (Birth to Three Months)
- When a baby is making movements with their arms, legs, etc, they are learning about and discovering how their body moves.
Solitary Play (Three Months to Two and a half Years)
- Child plays alone and doesn't really have interest in others.
- Child is focused on and content with the activity at hand.
Onlooker Play (Two and a half to Three and a half)
- Child starts to show interest in what others are playing
- Watches other children play but does not play with them.
Parallel Play (Three and a half to Four Years)
- Play near each other, often with the same items.
- May copy each other, but have their own goals.
- Minimal communication with each other
Associative Play (Four to Four and a half Years)
- Socially engaged with their peers and sharing materials, but the activity is not communal
- Playing together and yet doing their own thing
Cooperative Play (Four and a half Years +)
- Socially interacts with others
- Activity is organized, shares resources,
- Common goal with others
The Importance of Open- Ended Play
Open-ended play is one of the different types of play, and an important part in early development as well as building a love for learning. When a student engages in open-ended play, he/she has the freedom to make decisions in play where there are no specific rules or limitations that must be followed. Essentially, there is no right or wrong way to do something. Unlike other types of play, there is not a set end result or product that is expected, and instead open-ended play focuses on the process.
Through this concept, open-ended play promotes creativity, imagination, cooperation and problem solving as children explore and manipulate different materials and resources. Additionally, children are able to practice both fine and gross motor skills, explore and understand their feelings and emotions through pretend play, and practice social skills of sharing and taking. Finally, open-ended play is a great way to build communication skills.
To aid in the enhancement of vocabulary and academic growth, when your child begins play, you can follow these three words, OBSERVE, WAIT and LISTEN. As your child moves to a particular object or toy, OBSERVE what they are doing. WAIT and give them time to explore and finally, LISTEN to what they are saying. Your child’s language skills will emerge and grow as they play, and you can encourage and help that growth!
Example: BLOCK PLAY
You have OBSERVED and you see that your child has taken interest in blocks. You might expect them to begin building a tower, but WAIT because maybe they want to clap them together, or put them into a container. LISTEN for any vocalizations, words, phrases or sentences. Now place yourself on the floor, facing the child. Using parallel talk; parallel talk is when you use child-friendly language to narrate what YOUR CHILD is doing. Talk about what he is touching, seeing, feeling, smelling, and hearing. You use words that are meaningful to the specific play, such as when your child claps the blocks together, you say, “clap, clap, clap” or “bang, bang, bang”. You can then describe the sound by saying “That is loud” or “That is quiet”. As they continue to play, comment on the color of the blocks, “You are holding a blue block, now you are holding a red block”. As a parent, you are modeling description type words as well as action words. The more your child hears these words, the greater the likelihood that they will begin to use them. The best thing that you can do is to TALK, TALK, TALK!
Have fun while you are teaching your child valuable skills and enhancing their vocabulary!
Examples of Open-Ended Learning Tools and Resources
Art materials: markers, crayons, paper, paints, craft sticks, playdoh, pipe cleaners, pom poms
Loose parts: buckets, baskets, boxes, balls, blocks paper towel/toilet paper rolls, egg cartons, ice cube trays, kitchen spoons/whisk/spatula/tongs
Dress up Clothes (this can even be Parents or Siblings clothes!)
Animal figures
Outdoor Items: sand, dirt, mud, twigs, branches, flowers, shells, pinecones, feathers
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