Play is one of the most natural and important activities for children’s childhoods. It not only means “play with happy”, but also an important way for children to know world, express emotions, communicate with others, and solve problems. Different types of kids play will bring different learning experiences, so to know play of different forms, it is very important for parents and teaching staff to design a more effective education environment.
From independent exploration to collaborating with friends, from physical sports to role-playing, types of play is rich. Every play all can support children’s ability development at different stages, having an importance function for kids development.
Types of Play: What are the different forms of children's play?
Children’s play not just a simple activity. Along with the development of ages, interest and social skills, children will gradually develop from simple independent exploration to more complex cooperative and rule-based games.
The following are several common and representative play forms.
1. Solitary Play
Solitary Play means children playing alone and don’t need other children. This kind of type is very common in young children.
Children can play fun play equipment, such as building block, jigsaw, and toy car alone, and they also can read a picture book or explore their surroundings. Although it looks like lacking of social interaction, but the solitary play can give children a full personal space, that let them explore according to their interests.
The common activities include:
Playing building blocks or jigsaws alone
Painting, coloring, and handicrafts
Operating toys or exploring natural materials
Reading picture books alone
Solitary Play can help children to train focus, autonomy, and problem-solving skills, and it is a very natural play way during children's growth and development.
2. Onlooker Play
Onlooker Play means children observe other children playing, but not yet directly played together.
For example, one child watch other children playing building blocks, playing mini slides, or playing a role and standing by the side. Although the child doesn’t join together, but he is observing behavior, communication ways, and game rules of others.
This kind of play is very meaning for children of lower ages and just entering a group environment.
Parents and teachers don’t need to force kids to join immediately, you can encourage them to observe though simple questions: “What do you think they might be building?”
This kind of interaction can help children to gradually build confidence in joining in games.
3. Parallel Play
Parallel Play usually happened after children begin to pay attention to other kids. Two or more children play on a same space, but they play their own activities, so don’t have true collaboration.
For example, two kids sit by the sand table, one is raking up sand, the other is building a sandcastle. They will be closer to each other, and maybe observed each other, but still played independently.
The parallel play commonly seen in:
Sand and water games
Playing building blocks
Drawing and painting
Jigsawing
Playing with small amusement equipment
It is an important transitional stage for children walk from independent games to social games, and it can help children gradually getting to know other kids, learning observation and adapt to the group environment.
4. Associative Play
Associative Play is better than Parallel Play. Children start communicating, sharing toys, and even discussing game content, but usually not have a clear common goal.
For example, some kids play building blocks together, they can borrow building blocks, discuss colors and forms with each other, but every people still build their own works.
For children’s kids development, this kind of interaction is an important step to build early social skills.
5. Cooperative Play
Cooperative Play is a more mature social game format. Children start to play around a same common goal, needing communication, division of labor, and cooperation each other.
For example, children can build a “city” and finishing a large jigsaw together, or many kids play a role together.
In the cooperative play, children not only need to consider their ideas, but also need to understand others needs.
For example:
Building a large-scale building block structure together
Grouping to finish a creative craft project
Playing team sports games
Designing a role-playing story together
Cooperative play can let kids learn communication, listening, negotiation, and teamwork in the real interaction, so it has an important value in the early education.
6. Pretend & Dramatic Play
Pretend & Dramatic Play is a very creative form of play for kids. Children can become a doctor, teacher, firefighter, chef, or shopkeeper through imagination, and then create a their own story.
For example, some kids can build a “hospital”, one child becomes a doctor, the other becomes a nurse, others kids play a role of patients.
This kind of play looks like just an imagine, but it can support multi-aspect development:
Language skills
Social skills
Emotion development
Creativity
So role playing becomes an important way for children to explore the ture world.
7. Physical Play
Physical Play is a way to explore and play for kids through physical sports, and it is a important part in children’s childhood.
Activities such as running, jumping, climbing, sliding, balancing, and throwing, they all belong Physical Play.
Outdoor playgrounds especially can offer more rich sports choices, for example:
Climbing frames
Slides
Swings
Balance beams
Stepping stones
Climbing nets
These activities can let kids train body coordination, balance, strength, and spatial awareness, and also can create more choice for outdoor exploring.
8. Constructive Play
Constructive Play focuses on “creating” and “making”. Children can create their own works through building blocks, sand, interlocking toys, paper, or other materials.
For example, a child can uses building blocks to build a house or design a bridge with other kids.
Constructive Play not only focuses on the final work, the most important thing is that children need to keep trying during this process:
“Can this be built?”
“What would happen if I moved it to a different position?”
This kind of continuous trying process can train children’s spatial cognition, creativity, fine motor skills, and basic problem-solving abilities.
9. Games with Rules
Along with children’s age growing, they start to understand more clear rules, so games with rules also gradually become more important.
“Simon Says”, simple chessboard games, card games, and team sports, they all belong to rules games.
The games with rules require children to:
Understand the game rules
Wait for own turn
Keep the promise
Control their behavior
Interact with other players
These experiences can help children to build self-regulation ability and gradually understand the rules and responsibilities in group activities.
10. Exploratory Play
Exploratory Play is a kind of game form for children to learn surrounding environment through observing, touching, trying, and testing repeatedly. It does not necessarily need a clear game rule, children can decide what to observe, what to touch, and how to do according to their curiosities.
For example, children observe leaves, stones, and insects, try different ways to move the items, or test in the sand-water area, "will water flow through?", "which items will float?" or others.
The value of exploration games lies in the process itself. Children can build initial understanding of color, shape, weight, space, and causality through trying and finding.
The common Exploratory Play includes:
Nature exploration: Observing plants, insects, rocks, and more.
Sand-Water exploration: Digging, pouring water, filtering, and mixing.
Material exploration: Comparing the weight, texture, and shape of different items.
Outdoor exploration: climbing, finding trails, and discovering the surrounding environment.
Types of play show many rich different forms during children's learning and growth. From independent exploration, observation, and parallel play to cooperation, role-playing, construction play, and rule games, every kind of form all can become an important channel for children knowing world.
For parents and teaching staff, understanding game’s importance, and offering a safe, diverse, and age-appropriate game environment is better than simply focusing on "what to teach children". the real value of games not only let kids get a short happy, but also can support their education, childhood experience and kids development during the natural game process.
FAQ
1. Should parents and adults direct children's play?
Parents and adults can offer a safe environment, appropriate materials, and guidance, but it not means every game all need to be operated by adults. Giving children a certain personal space, let kids explore, create, and solve problems according to their interests.
2. At what age do different types of play usually appear?
Different game forms don’t have absolutely fixed age limit. Children usually develop from simple exploration activities to more complex imagination, cooperation and rule games along with the development of language ability, cognitive abilities, and social experience. A same kind of game can be appeared with various ways in different age groups.
3. Can one activity include multiple types of play?
Yes. A game activity always includes many kinds of forms at the same time. For example, children may start exploration game and physical play when climbing in the playgrounds. When some kids building playground models together, it will combines constructive play, imaginative play, and cooperative play.
4. How can teachers observe children through play?
Teachers can observe what games children choose, how they use the materials, whether they actively communicate with other kids, and how to solve problems when meeting difficulties. Through these nature actions, teaching staff can know children’s interests, skills, and current developmental needs better.
5. Does the play environment affect children's play behavior?
Yes. Spatial layout, material types, safety level, and whether there is an open activity area, they all can affect children choose what game. Rich and flexible environment can offer more exploring and creating choices, and the single environment may limits game ways.
6. Can children benefit from playing without expensive toys?
Yes. Children’s play not depend on expensive or complex toys. Simple materials such as cardboard boxes, branches, stones, building blocks, sand, and water, they all can be the starting point of creative play. Open-ended materials often can let kids choose gameplay independently to form more diverse game experiences.
