“The entire experiential existence of man is built on the foundation of play.”
D.W. Winnicott
Let's take a look at the developmental stages of play in early childhood, starting from a very limited area in infancy and expanding to a wider area and with more and more "others":
More between 0-12 months Exploration games seen
Sensory-motor game: Games observed in the form of taking objects in their hands or putting them in their mouths, pushing-pulling can be listed. It is the kind of activities in which babies discover their own bodies and objects by acting in a way that appeals to the senses such as light, sound, roughness, hot, cold, dry, wet. includes. An example of this is noticing that the toy car moves when the button is pressed, and pressing the button for this purpose. Short-term separation-reunion games such as the toy disappearing and then returning it can be played with a child in this period. In the "ceee" game, which is started to be played when the baby is 7-8 months old, the presence of the parent who covers his face with his hand and disappears and then reappears is a meaningful game in dealing with anxiety.
Games that start to be seen mostly between 12-24 months
Associative play: Examples of imaginary games in which children pretend to drink water, eat, talk on the phone or sleep by themselves are examples.
Functional play: These are the games that bear traces of the child forming schemas related to objects, actions and people. For example, if a previously imitated game is made spontaneously by the child without performing it. An example can be given to the child doing "bye bye" when saying "let's bye-bye" without being shown. activities can be counted in this group.
Social play: These can be counted as (parallel) games in which they notice other children, watch them, but do not interact with them even though they are standing next to each other. In this period, children play together but each with their own toys.
Role playing: Examples of symbolic games such as feeding the baby, making the toy dog run around, using the toy cube as if it were an apple can be given as examples.
Symbolic Play: It is expected to be seen between the second and third years of age. Longer play scenarios such as feeding the doll/animal first and then taking it for a walk come into play, dramatic scenes can be enacted. The child can bring into play anything that he/she has witnessed and experienced in daily life. He may call you to the game, give you a role, and then pretend you're not there. This is about paying attention only enough to create a game scenario. In the later stages, they start to set up games with another person, the subject of which is certain, the roles of each person are different, and everyone has their own scenario. In the same game, one child may be hungry and eating, while another may want to drive and another may want to put their baby to sleep, and the child begins to remember the scenarios of others, that is, to understand the mental representations of others.
Constructive play: Shape of objects. and they change their forms and start to produce new things. Trying to design different states of objects, such as turning two cubes into a bed by putting them side by side, turning a toy bowl upside down and using it as a hat, helps develop the skills of planning, organizing and self-evaluation.
The development of play skills are the skills that are expected to occur in a typically developing child by providing suitable environmental conditions for the child.
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