You are a child psychologist who is seeing a child who appears not
to want to participate in pretend or imaginative play. You are discussing
the problem with her parents, and discover that they are very intrusive on
their child's free playtime. By going over information on how children
learn, you help the parents understand play at home and at the school.
As
you explain the importance of child's play, the parents ask you a few
questions. Using the material below, answer the parents' questions:
Playtime
as a Gateway to Learning
Playtime should be relaxed and pressure-free.
Constructive play usually begins only after a child feels familiar and comfortable
in a setting. Activities shouldn't be switched too often as long as the
children are satisfied.
The best play materials suggest imaginative
uses rather than being too literal -- materials for building a pretend house,
for example, are better than one already fitted out with perfect furniture
and accessories.
Children use play to gain important feelings of mastery
and control or to deal with issues that may be troubling them.
Children
should be able to express forbidden feelings in play at school about real
events in their own lives. For example, a child with a new baby at home may
temporarily adopt rough play with baby dolls at school. She gets rid of some
of her feelings without doing any damage to the real baby, and sensitive adults
may encourage her to use words to help resolve conflict.
Rule-governed
games are fun for adults and children and promote many kinds of learning,
but they shouldn't substitute for exploratory and pretend play.
Children
playing together often make up their own rules, which may seem incomprehensible
to an adult. As long as the children are satisfied, adults should stand aside.
They don't have our schemas (conceptions) for rules and we have forgotten
theirs.
Dramatic play teaches social skills more effectively than any
type of instruction.
Creative pretend activities are often used by
a child to firm up new understandings about the world. Good schools encourage
and respect the quality of a child's emerging thought.
(Excerpt
from Your Child's Growing Mind by Dr. Jane M. Healy. Doubleday Books:
New York, 1987)