Einstein Never Used Flashcards: Play!

I was reading this chapter from the book "Einstein Never Used Flash Cards" by Kathy Kirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff.  I was delving in to Chapter 9: Play: The Crucible of Learning.  It was AMAZING!  It went all through play and how it develops and how it can help kids.  

Sometimes we don't think about play as the crucial component to development that it is.  And, we REALLY don't think about play in the tiny, development steps that seem to come so quickly and naturally to kids.  I really liked the way this book laid out the specifics of play - how it's important from the tiniest glimmers of play to the two hour long dramas our preschoolers put together.  

I was excited to read about the steps in pretend play as it made me think more specifically about the kiddos I work with.  Are they playing?  Are they playing as complexly as I expect for their age?  How can I better support more complex play and spontaneous ideas?  

Anyway, check this out (and for more details and rich examples, I recommend you check out the book from your library and read away!) :

Pretend Play Development (and how Language Development Coincides):

1.  Child pretends by copying the real life function of the toy (i.e. drinking from a cup)

2.  Child adds drama and "self-pretends" (i.e. drinks from the cup with big slurpy sounds and mmmmm sounds after)

3.  Pretend play can include others (i.e. child drinks from cup and then helps Elmo to take a sip).

4.  Child uses play gestures in combination (i.e. child takes a drink from the cup and then eats a slice of bread)

5.  "Hierarchical Pretend" - child has an organized, hierarchically sound plans and followed through with logical steps to execute the plan.

The cool thing about this, was that they found all these steps developed along with the language.  So, for steps 1 and 2, kids were only speaking in one word phrases.  For step 3, the child was starting to direct language. Step 4, child was combining language (i.e. "eat cookie") and for Step 5, child was taking in 2-4 word sentences.  Neat.

Then they also went through social play.  They found:

1.  Kids treat each other like objects - parallel play - end of first year

2.  Cooperative play (13-14 months)

3.  Kids start to take on roles (age 2)

4.  Kids establish play routines with their roles and themes (3-4 years old).

Anyway, so cool, right?  Just thought I'd share these cool little steps and encourage you to go read chapter 9 and learn more details about the importance of play in development :)