Play is not an ability that only starts after age three, says Jennie Lindon - it's developing at all times in many ways
Practitioners and parents who observe babies and toddlers closely are in no doubt that they play. Yet it is not unusual to hear under-threes described mainly in terms of all the play activities they cannot yet do, or the 'awful mess' they make. Perhaps this tunnel vision about what counts as 'proper play' arises because so much has been written about the play of children older than three years.
Social start
Some descriptions of the progression of play in the early years are very firm about a clear developmental pattern. Stages are proposed to be the 'solitary play' of toddlers, moving into 'parallel play' with young children, on to 'associative play' with brief interactions and finally to 'co-operative play' in which children take clear roles in lengthy play sequences.
Of course, the play skills and interactions of very young children look different from those of older children. But how do we reconcile the following observations with the persistent myth that very young children's play is solitary?
- A ten-month-old baby sits in her high chair with toys on the tray. She drops a rattle over the edge, perhaps by accident. Then her mother picks it up and smiles as she gives it back. The next drop of the rattle looks more deliberate.
From then on, this looks like a planned game. The baby calls out and gestures with her eyes and arm to indicate that her mother should do her picking-up part. - In a day nursery, four mobile under-twos are absorbed in posting plastic play plates through railings to drop on to the steps a short drop below. The plates make a satisfying clatter and the toddlers drop and watch, take simple turns and indulge in some serious chortling. The early years practitioner watches and decides that the enjoyment of the game overrides any need to say 'don't do that with the plates'.
- Several nearly-two-year-olds have fun with a canvas tunnel. They play peek-a-boo and crawl-chase each other through. An adult is watching and laughing with the children, but does not need to do more than ensure that the tunnel remains stable.
Involved and involving
Young children, even babies, show a social playfulness with each other and with a familiar carer, whether in the family or a nursery. They learn, recall and initiate games with adults and other children. Very young children also spend quite a lot of time in happy absorption without another child or adult directly involved. They use all their physical skills to explore their environment and objects of interest. (See 'Young explorers', Nursery World, 10 February 2000.) Children explore play items and anything else of interest with their eyes and hands. Their increasing confidence in balance and large movements gives an energetic physical strand to their play.
Very young children do sometimes play alongside one another. Yet if you watch, in a nursery or a family home, you will notice how often they invite involvement with a look, a gesture or the clear message of offering an object to another child or adult close by.
Elinor Goldschmied's development of the treasure basket and heuristic play has shown that babies and toddlers are intensely interested in the play of other children and often engage them in give-and-take exchanges.
Mobile toddlers develop social games that definitely have a playful quality and show an understanding of very simple turn-taking, short waiting and basic roles in play. Watch and you will see games of peep-boo, crawling-chasing and games that extend toddlers' skills in sound making, building up and knocking down, and piling smaller objects into larger containers.
Mobile toddlers and young children need to move and have the option of movement. A great deal of their enjoyable play is physical and allows them to practise large movements and fine co-ordinations. They learn through doing, and that experience in turn stimulates their thinking powers, as past experience is brought to bear on the current situation. They do sometimes play in one spot and can remain engrossed in how they want to explore particular play materials on that particular day. The case study (left) highlights a centre that has used Chris Athey's idea of schemas as a way to illuminate the richness of young children's play themes.
Young pretenders
At some point in the second year of life, most children show the first signs of genuine pretend play.
- At the outset the pretend play action is fleeting and applied to the children themselves - a quick pretend drink, a swift cuddle of a favourite doll. You may miss it the first or second time.
- Very soon, the play develops into sequences and involves other players such as Teddy, who is put to bed, or an adult who is fed pretend food.
- Two- and three-year-olds, who have access to pretend play materials, extend their play in many ways. They try out pretend cooking, and care for dolls and teddies. A large cardboard box becomes a bus or a cave. Some children become very absorbed with 'small world' figures.
When children's play remains within a relatively narrow age band, then the development of pretend play into socio-dramatic play seems to arise after about three years of age. This more complex pretend play can be lengthy and involve agreed roles in a pretend scenario. However, observation of siblings in family life has shown that two-year-olds, drawn into socio-dramatic play by older siblings, are then very capable of making changes to their role and actively influencing the plot. The chance to enrich young children's play is another reason to consider regularly bringing the age groups together in your nursery (see 'Big and little', Nursery World, 11 January 2001).
Case study: extending schemas
The Bradshaw Early Years Centre in Salford has developed its practice by applying the ideas of Chris Athey's schemas to daily life with under-threes. Head of centre Jean Coward explains that observation is central for staff to build on young children's play interests. She actively supports her team to watch and make notes of how toddlers are using the play materials, including a child's current schema, such as transporting materials around the centre. It is then possible for alert staff to put out, or encourage a child to access play materials that can extend the transporting.
Jean explains, 'We use schemas as a planning tool and not in any prescriptive way. The whole point is to support staff to tune into very young children, to notice what they do in their play - not get stuck with a list of things they "don't do" compared with older children.'
The centre's practice helps to develop the confidence of the team to explain and share with parents, and other interested adults, the richness in the play of very young children. The team plan ahead, but then each day develops in a flexible way, so that children not only choose what materials will be part of their play but also how they will use them. It is fully understood that individual children will use the sand, building or craft materials in different ways.
Good practice tips
The best ways to be alert to young children's play choices include: n Use your skills of observation in a relaxed and informal way: look, listen and observe what the children are doing and in what way.
- Work with colleagues to abandon any rigid assumptions that 'proper' play has to have certain characteristics.
- Flexible plans allow adults to go with the flow of what interests the children today (see 'Nature's way', Nursery World, 14 December 2000). The richness of young children's play is evident when they have choice in play materials, rather than a selection determined by the adults.
- Ensure that play materials have plenty of scope for different uses. For example, fixed sound-making consoles are only enjoyable for a short period. Once babies and toddlers have rung the bells and turned the knobs, there is not much else to do. On the other hand, a range of sound-making toys can be experimented on, shared with a friend and carried around.
Further resources
- Chris Athey, Extending thought in young children (Paul Chapman, 1991)
- Jennie Lindon, Play and Learning for the Under-threes (9.99 from the Nursery World Bookshop, 01454 617 370)
