Types of Play in Child Development

Types of Play

• Sensorimotor play involves exercising sensorimotor schemes to derive pleasure.
• Practice play involves the repetition of behavior to learn new skills or master physical or mental coordination.
• Pretense/symbolic play transforms the physical environment into a symbol, such as a child treating a table as a car.
• Social play involves interaction with peers and increases dramatically during preschool years.
• Constructive play combines sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic representation, resulting in the creation of a product or solution.
• Games are activities with rules, often involving competition, and can include social games with simple rules of reciprocity and turn taking.

Media and Screen Time

• Screen time describes the amount of time spent with television, DVDs, computers, video games, and hand-held electronic devices.
• Television can have a negative influence on children's development by exposing them to violence and aggression.
• Television can also have a positive influence on children's development by presenting educational programs, providing information, and displaying models of prosocial behavior.

Children's Safety

• Children's safety is influenced by their own skills and safety behaviors, as well as aspects of their family, school, peers, and community.
• Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in the home can increase the risk of wheezing symptoms and asthma in children.

Cognitive Changes

• Piaget's pre-operational stage describes a stage of cognitive development.
• Vygotsky's theory emphasizes the role of social influences, especially instruction, in children's cognitive development.
• The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the range of tasks that are too difficult for a child to master alone but can be learned with guidance and assistance.
• Scaffolding involves adjusting the level of support to fit a child's current performance, with more guidance provided when the child is learning a new task.