CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
1. Define and describe the term play.
2. Describe the roles in play.
3. Explain the purposes of play.
4. Explain the value of play in a school setting.
5. Explain the connections between play and academic learning.
6. Plan for outdoor play experiences.
7. Plan for adaptations in play equipment for children with special needs.
8. Plan for the play of children from diverse cultures.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
1. Different play situations offer children different levels of choice.
A) Free play allows children to choose materials and how they are used.
B) Guided play allows children to explore selected objects designed to inspire specific concepts or ideas.
C) Directed play uses direct instruction to teach a playful activity or game and offers children little or no choice.
2. As children develop, their interactions with others during social play become more sophisticated.
A) Solitary play occurs when one child interacts with inanimate materials, with no regard for surrounding people.
B) Onlooker play occurs when a child attends to the play of surrounding children but does not interact with them.
C) Parallel play occurs when two or more children engage in similar or identical play, but one child's activity is not dependent on the others'.
D) Associative play occurs when two or more children play interactively, but without clearly defined and agreed upon roles or rules.
E) Cooperative play occurs when two or more children play interactively, with mutually agreed roles and interdependent activity.
3. As children develop, their use of objects becomes more sophisticated.
A) Practice play occurs when children explore the physical possibilities of objects.
B) Symbolic play occurs when children use one object to represent another.
C) Games with rules occur when childrer, use materials according to a mutually agreed system.
D) Games of construction occur when children expand practice play to accommodate more sophisticated ideas and symbolic representation.
4. Vygotsky defined play as the use of objects in a symbolic fashion, and emphasized the role of language in imaginary play.
A) Play allows children to simplify a task so that it is within their zone of proximal development.
B) Play helps the child differentiate symbols from concrete actions and objects, fostering symbolic thinking.
C) Social play provides practice in self-regulation.
5. Research on play has emphasized sociodramatic play.
A) Sociodramatic play involves the use of symbolic play in a social setting to imagine adult or fantasy roles.
B) Sociodramatic play is associated with many desirable intellectual outcomes, particularly perspective taking and social skills.
C) Sociodramatic play can be encouraged by providing diverse props elaborating an social theme, and providing children adequate classroom time to explore the props.
D) Teachers can encourage sociodramatic play by modeling and participation, or by discussion the script for particular events and then providing materials to enact that script.
6. The role of the child at play
A) Play is self-selected and pleasurable.
B) Children at play are physically and mentally active.
C) Play is often symbolic and not literal.
D) Play does not have an extrinsic goal or reward.
E) Children supply their own nontraditional meaning and uses for objects during play.
F) During play, rules are negotiated among players and not imposed by others.
G) Children generally view teacher-directed activities as "work".
7. The role of the teacher in play
A) Observing play offers the teacher useful information about children's skills and abilities.
B) Teachers can elaborate or expand children's play by providing additional materials or ideas.
C) Teachers can model appropriate social skills or script ideas.
D) Teachers can evaluate play for patterns in children's activities.
E) Teachers must plan in order to expand children's play, by evaluating current activities and elaborating on them and modeling new ones.
8. As children develop cognitively, their play develops as well.
A) Infant play is sensorimotor, exploring their surroundings.
B) During the second year, infants focus increasingly on people around them.
C) The process of an activity has more of an impact than the product for preschoolers
who engage in exploratory or practice play. Preschoolers are not very interested in games with rules and would rather engage in vigorous physical play.
D) Sociodramatic play begins with family roles in the early preschool years and becomes more elaborate, intense and topically varied with age. Sociodramatic play decreases during the elementary years and is replaced by games with rules.
E) When middle childhood approaches, children enjoy rule-oriented games. Structured sports, creative dramas and detailed board games all become part of their play experience.