PLAY

susanmosley

I am obsessed with PLAY.  I am seeing that other's of you have great interests in it as well and understand the value of symbolic play.  So, I thought I would share what I know.  I have attended many seminars on literacy, language and play development and have two more courses on it tomorrow.  So, I will be reporting back in.  

If you care, here is some info:

Here is a quick hierarchy of symbolic play development (obviously it is a guide and ages are approximate)

17-19 months - beginning of pretend play on OWN SELF.  Recalling and recreating personal experiences that happen daily (feeding, grooming, bathing, etc.).  Usually only engage in single activities ("feeds" a baby with a spoon, not yet preparing and cooking a meal and then putting on the bib and feeding the baby and then cleaning up).  And they use realistic props - a phone is a phone, a banana is not a phone.

19-22 months - pretends on a doll.  Takes on the role of the caregiver.  Combines 2 toys or performs actions on 2 people.  Still using realistic props

2 years - talks to dolls, recreating experience that only happen periodically (something that was awesome or not good at all), now they complete several actions on one theme - baby gets in a bath, washed, dried, dressed), still mostly realistic props - beginning to use low-representation props (a kleenex box for a baby bed)

3 years - gives voices to dolls and puppets, recreating events they have read about or seen, but not personally experienced, events/schemas getting lengthier and more complex and that occur over a longer period of time (a trip to the zoo, etc), using low representation toys/substituting one object for another (banana for phone)

4 years - gives characters multiple roles (so if they are playing MOM, they would mother a doll, go to work, gab on the phone to a girl friend, be a wife, etc).  Start using language to set the scene - not only language while playing/role taking, but language to tell what is going to happen.  Also engaging in familiar fantasy themes (cinderella, bat man, etc)

By 5-6 they are creating highly imaginative themes and novel characters with multiple planned sequences. 

Obviously there is a lot more than this, but I am trying to summarize and keep this post at a semi-reasonable length.  This is taken from Carol Westby PhD, CCC-SLP

I hope I am not sounding like a know it all (cause God knows I don't even know 5% of "it all").  I just love this stuff (initially from a professional stand point and now personally watching DD) and want to share it with any other dorks out there who love it as much as I do.

And I have more.  a lot a lot more.  

 

jenifairies

You don't sound like a know it all. That was very helpful. Do you have any articles that are short? I know, odd request, but I really can't get my H to read a book and it would be nice to show him something. lol

What did you do professionally?

susanmosley

speech language pathologist (i.e. speech therapist)

I am actually thinking about starting a blog (yeah yeah, like the rest of the world) about play (and all that goes with it - language, literacy development, social/emotional development).  I will share a link once I do.  I hope for it to be DHs-friendly

In the mean time, let me think about what I may have that is short and to the point for your DH

But here is a quote in the meantime:

Play for young children is not recreation activity...It is not leisure-time activity nor escape activity...Play is thinking time for young children.  It is language time.  Problem-solving time.  It is memory time, planning time, investigating time.  It is organization-of-ideas time, when a yound child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his powers in response to the stimuli he has met.

James L. Hymes from Teaching the Child Under Six

I will find something better for you. 

lms_bride

susanmosley:

speech language pathologist (i.e. speech therapist)

I am actually thinking about starting a blog (yeah yeah, like the rest of the world) about play (and all that goes with it - language, literacy development, social/emotional development).  I will share a link once I do.  I hope for it to be DHs-friendly

In the mean time, let me think about what I may have that is short and to the point for your DH

But here is a quote in the meantime:

Play for young children is not recreation activity...It is not leisure-time activity nor escape activity...Play is thinking time for young children.  It is language time.  Problem-solving time.  It is memory time, planning time, investigating time.  It is organization-of-ideas time, when a yound child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his powers in response to the stimuli he has met.

James L. Hymes from Teaching the Child Under Six

I will find something better for you. 

I love this quote!  Thank you for sharing this!  Are you the one who posted a week or so ago about your mom complimenting you on teaching your child in a non-teaching way?  Anyway, I am all about that with our son, or at least I want to be.  If you decide to start a blog, I would definitely read it and I bet a bunch of other moms on here would too.  Keep it up!

EnglishMajor03

Oh you do not need to worry about sounding like a know it all!  You rock!!  Thanks for sharing this and for your response to my other post.  Made me feel better....sometimes things are taken a little too seriously around here.