Zwelihle Playground Project
Play
As an anthropology student, Tristina researched social aspects of play while she was working on the playground project. Childrens' play is a cultural activity. Their make-beliefs, an important aspect of play, are strongly related to their own culture. For example, when children play house, they pretend to be a mother, a father, a baby and kids, and they act according to the norms and ideals of their society. In other words, childrens' play reflects a way of life and a world view of their culture.
Anthropologists study childrens' play in different cultures. They analyze how children interpret and transform a cultural environment into their creative activities. It is important to encourage children to play, not only for their physical and mental development, but also for their cultural enrichment. The following is a portion of resources Tristina collected for her research.
Resources 1. What Is Play? |
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1. What Is Play?
Play can be described as intrinsically motivated activity that is pleasurable to the participant. It is an activity in which being engaged in a process, rather than achieving a final product is the goal. Research has centered on two aspects of play: social and cognitive. (Tarnowski 1999)
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2. What Kinds of Play Are There?
Research has centered on two aspects of play: social and cognitive. (Tarnowski 1999)
Types of Social Play
| Solitary play: | child plays alone with out reference to other children who may be near. |
| Onlooker play: | child watches other children play and may talk to then but does not enter into their play. |
| Parallel play: | children play independently with identical or similar objects but makes no attempt to modify the behaviors of each other. |
| Associative play: | activity in which there is overt recognition by the playgroup members of the shared nature of their activity. |
| Cooperative play: | activity in which roles and specific objects may be assigned and rules may be set up and communicated (Tarnowski 1999). |
Types of Cognitive Play
| Functional Play: |
activity in which children use their bodies to run, jump, or repetitively manipulate objects in order to learn about the world around them. |
| Constructive Play: | activity in which children use objects to create structures or forms. |
| Dramatic play: | activity in which children engage in role-playing or the transformation of objects (e.g. child may become an adult or animal, or a paper towel core many become a microphone). |
| Games with Rules: | activities in which children make and/or use rules to establish how the play will proceed (Tarnowski 1999). |
resources
3. Children and Play
Over the past 30 years, the study of children's play has been a popular topic of scientific inquiry. (Prelligrini 1998)
Play provides that natural and experiential learning that supports the child's construction of his own knowledge of the world and his place in it. It significantly affects the development of the whole child. (Tarnowski 1999)At every age some needs of the child are fulfilled through play. (McCune 1998)
Pellegrini and Smith (1998) distinguish three kinds of physical activity play, with consecutive age peaks: rhythmic stereotypies peaking in infancy, exercise play peaking during the preschool years, and rough-and-tumble play peaking in middle childhood. (Prelligrini 1998)
Rhythmic Stereotypies examples include body rocking and foot kicking. The onset of these behaviors is probably controlled by general neuromuscular maturation.
Infant's rhythmic stereotypies primarily functional for the immediate benefits of improving control of specific motor patterns. (Prelligrini 1998)Exercise play is its physical vigor. There is a correlation between exercise play and muscle differentiation, strength and endurance. (Prelligrini 1998)
Rough-and- tumble play refers to vigorous behaviors such as wrestling, grappling, kicking, and tumbling that would appear to be aggressive except for the playful context. (Prelligrini 1998)Early stimulation of children leads to higher cognitive scores. (Marano 1999)
Play gives children the opportunity to interact socially and de-center their thinking from themselves by focusing on a playmate. They learn how to play together, be patient, take turns, and cooperate. (Tarnowski 1999)
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4. Adults and Play
Play aids the mental creativity, health and happiness of adults, but its value is not often sufficiently appreciated. Devoting time to play is a characteristic of animals with complex brain structure, and play appears to have a role in mate selection and evolution. (Marano 1999)
Just in the past 30 years, there has been a cultural shift reemphasizing work and getting ahead. We still play, but much of its seems to a lack a playful quality, observes anthropologist Garry Chic, Ph.D. of Penn State University, Playfulness has been replaced by aggressiveness and the feeling that more needs to be crammed into less time. (Marano 1999)
Scholars themselves debate the state of our leisure time. Many believe that the amount of free time we have to use for play has decreased since about 1970, after having increased steadily since the Industrial Revolution. The increase accompanied a transition from am industrial economy marked by hourly wages to a service economy characterized by salaries. But the globalization of business competition and a general cultural rejection of the ideals of the 1960s in favor of a new materialism have actually eroded our free time since then. (Marano 1999)
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5. Teachers and Play
In order to promote and nurture children's play as a learning tool, teachers must be able to recognize it. (Tarnowski 1999)
As children move into primary school, a decline in physical activity is witnessed. (Prelligrini 1998)
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6. What Does Play Do for Us?
Play refreshes and recharges us.
Play restores our optimism.
Play changes our perspective.
Play stimulates creativity. (Marano1999)Play may prevent obesity and may provide defense against cold exposure. (Prelligrini 1998)
Even if benefit so physical activity play are more immediate than deferred, they may still be important. There are public health implications for the role of physical activity play for the physical fitness of children growing up in a modern industrial society. Children have limited opportunities for physical activity, due to shortage of play spaces, dangerous neighborhoods, and the increased demands of formal schooling. The children seem to 'need' physical activity is supported by the rebound effects observed in deprivation studies. (Prelligrini1998)
7. References
Tarnowski, Susan M.
1999 Musical Play and Young Children. Music
Educators Journal 86(1): 26-29.
Marano, Hara Estroff
1999 The Power of Play. Psychology Today, July: 32(4): p.36.
Prelligrini, A.D.
1998 Physical Activity Play: The Nature and Function of a Neglected Aspect
of Play.
Child Development 69(3) 577-98.
McCune, Lorraine
1998 Immediate and Ultimate Functions of Physical Activity Play. Child
Development 69(3): 301-603.
This page was created by Tristina Brown, edited by Minnesota State University, Mankato student. Last Updated 08/15/04.