Module 11 Chapter 15: Infants at Play PDF

Module 11 Chapter 15: Infants at Play: Development, Functions, and Partners The Development of Infant Play Exploration: in the 1st year, infant play is manipulating one object at a time and then moves to manipulate the parts of objects to explore how they relate/fit together ○ 1) unitary functional...

Module 11 Chapter 15: Infants at Play: Development, Functions, and Partners The Development of Infant Play Exploration: in the 1st year, infant play is manipulating one object at a time and then moves to manipulate the parts of objects to explore how they relate/fit together ○ 1) unitary functional activity: production of an effect that is unique to a single object ○ 13 months → throw or squeeze foam ball, 20 months → dial telephone 2) inappropriate combinational activity = juxtaposition of two or more objects that dont naturally go together ○ 13 & 20 months → put ball in vehicle 3) appropriate combinational activity: juxtaposition of two or more objects that naturally go together ○ 4) transitional play: approximate of pretense but without confirmatory evidence 13 months → put lid on teapot, 20 months → nest blocks 13 & 20 months → put telephone receiver to ear without vocalization Symbolic play: in the 2nd year of life, infants arent bound by the obvious characteristics of an object anymore and can use objects to pretend play about absent events or past experiences ○ 5) self-directed pretense: clear pretense activity directed towards self 13 & 20 months → eat from spoon or cup play becomes distanced from the self (pretending towards the self to pretending towards others) ○ 6) other-directed pretense: clear pretense activity directed towards others ○ 7) sequential pretense: link two or more pretense actions ○ 13 months → kiss or hug doll, 20 months → pretend vehicle makes sound 13 & 20 months → dial telephone and speak into receiver 8) pretend activity involving one or more object substitutions 13 & 20 months → pretend block is telephone and talk into it ○ play becomes distanced from the observed properties of objects ○ play becomes distanced from overt actions (moving from enacting active themes to expressing emotive ones) Functions of Play Intrapsychological → children regulate arousal and express emotions through play ○ Face-to-face exchanges with caregivers help infants regulate arousal, esp when caregivers respond appropriately to infants’ needs for more or less stimulation Infants can be more apt to experience pleasure and reduce negative states during play Younger infants rely on their play partners to interpret their signals; mothers are better at this than their peers (6 and 9 month olds) Mothers who spend more time in joint attention with 2-year-olds have infants with better self-soothing when they get frustrated ○ Play expands the emotional range of infants through experience and allows them to experiment with that range of emotions Mother-infant game rituals evoke and boost higher levels of joy than babies might achieve on their own and increases tolerance for higher arousal states ○ 10-24 months: infants express positive emotions towards peers when playing ○ Offering and accepting toys increases with age 17 months-3 years: infants laugh and smile more frequently with peers than with mothers They can express a greater variety of emotions with peers than mothers, both positive and negative ○ Mothers are better for supporting infants’ ability to represent and resolve conflicts and traumas through play than peers Mastery → play is associated with attention span and persistence in structured/unstructured tasks ○ Children can achieve a sense of self-efficacy and motivation to persist towards goals Mastery Motivation in Structured Tasks ○ Curiosity about and exploration of objects ○ Adults are more effective at focusing infants attention to stimuli than peers and encouraging further exploration ○ 1-2 years: goal-directed behaviours increase as they practice emerging skills and attempt multi-part tasks ○ Mothers are responsive to infant’s initiatives, assess infants’ needs for help, and give effective assistance Can maximize attention and interest during play from infant ○ Play is formative and shaped through social interactions. The mothers encourage the infants to perform at or above the level they have previously displayed, encouraging furthered development Mastery Motivation in Unstructured Play Peers appear to be better at sustaining attention from infants in unstructured, physically active play later ○ Good at maintaining mutual interest and excitement in joint episodes of interactive play and open-ended object exploration ○ Preschool: episodes of unstructured pretend play with peers are longer than those with mothers ○ Joint enthusiasm of peer play best supports continued engagement as long as children can manage the cognitive and social demands of the task Cognitive → enables children to acquire info and skills, engage in creative and divergent thinking, and advance in representational abilities The Acquisition of Information and Skills ○ Mother-infant play serves a teaching function. Mothers make sounds to prepare infants for future communication and objects to stimulate infants interest in objects and the environment ○ Mothers active participation in collaborative play → raises the level of expression of symbolic representation in their children’s play, making it richer, more diverse, sustaining its duration 15-24 month olds spend a logner time in higher-level non-symbolic/symbolic play when with their mothers ○ Mothers might channel infant play towards greater sophistication End of 1st year: infants watch and imitate their peers in play and may be more prone to imitating other children than adults in play Infants use imitation to intitate pretend play with siblings but never use imitation to initiate pretense with mothers ○ Mothers are prone to use play as a vehicle for learning, whereas siblings and peers are motivated by play itself Divergent Thinking and Creativity ○ The opportunity to play freely with materials has been linked to innovative uses for objects, a flexible approach to problem solving, creativity, and better performance on divergent thinking tasks ○ 2nd year: peers and siblings support flexibility, creativity, and divergent thinking in both exploratory and pretend play, often demonstrating novel actions in their play 17-20 months: infants engage in more creative/unusual use of objects during play with peers than with mothers Toddlers express more diverse pretense themes when playing with older siblings than mothers 2-3 year olds engaged in more imaginary pretense play with older siblings and more realistic pretense situations with play Representation ○ Piaget and Vygotsky both emphasized the importance of play in the development of representational thinking ○ Pretend play is correlated with language development, including vocab, verbal fluency, semantic diversity, and complexity of language structures Symbolic Play Adults support emerging abilities in infant pretense Infant symbolic play with their mothers is more diverse, complex, and sustained than solitary symbolic play Amount of pretense play solicited by mothers is positively correlated with amount of pretense play children engage in Siblings are less supporting of infants emerging pretense play until about 2-3 years. Older siblings may attempt to redirect infant play and elicit compliance, while peers tend to imitate pretense play ~33 months: pretense play is more prevalent with older siblings than with mothers Mothers tendency to focus on objects and their functions might provide support for the emerging symbolic abilities of 2 yr olds, and siblings use of pretense may provide better support for emerging representational abilities Most children still depend on a partner’s expertise to foster role play Language Development Mother-child play facilitates the use of more complex language than play with siblings or peers Mothers and fathers language use during play is positively linked with infants language gains Sensitive and stimulating play at 2-3 yrs old was associated with children’s language and cognitive development End of preschool years → language is now the major medium for shared pretense among children Adults continue to facilitate language development through responsive engagement with toddlers during collaborative play Social → play is a context for developing reciprocity and understanding others ○ Mother-infant play supports reciprocity, communication, and understanding ○ Role play enhances perspective-taking ability Communicative Reciprocity Conversational turn-taking and responding in a way that is topically related to a partner’s prior communication In infancy, play with adult caregivers is important to develop this reciprocity 2nd year: adults extend turn-taking exchanges during play by directing childrens attention to their own actions or linking their responses to the child’s actions. Peer communication during play becomes increasingly reciprocal Temporally related talk escalates when 20-24 months play together 29-38 months: peers are more likely to respond contingently to each other (not always verbal) More verbal communication between peers leads to increased understanding of feelings and understandings not bound to the immediate context of the play Social Understanding Childrens ability to convey their own and seek understanding of others’ thoughts and feelings Intersubjectivity: the origins of social understanding; affective, evident in the first few months of life via protoconversations between mothers and infants If mother or infant fails to respond with appropriate emotional expression, play is disrupted Teasing games and rituals to help the infant build negotiation skills Prepares children to share meaning with peers later on Secure mother-infant and teacher-toddler relationships shape social competence in children up to 9 years old Older infants: pretend play helps the development of understanding others feeling states 18-24 months old: infants can take on the perspective of a feeling state other than their own during pretend play with siblings Toddlers derive social support, trust, and intimacy from peers and will respond to crying of another child if that child is a friend More social pretense at 33 months → better at measuring affective understanding at 40 months Greater participation in role enactment → better performance on a task measuring children’s understanding of false beliefs 16-32 months: age mates use nonverbal imitation to create a mutual understanding of a joint goal in activities 18-36 months: children communicate the idea of “pretend” with exaggerated movements, facial gestures, voice inflection, and brief verbal exchanges” Cultural → a vehicle for transmitting social roles and cultural values ○ Who is deemed to be an appropriate play partner → conveys expectations about roles Some parents in cultures participate in play with their infants; some believe this is only for other children and/or grandparents (US mothers more likely to engage in play) ○ Can convey individualist vs collectivist values to infants through play Japanese mothers → self-directed play, other-directed pretense play, US mothers → object-directed play, independent, concrete play Japanese infants engage in more other-directed pretense play, and US infants are more advanced in receptive and productive vocabularies ○ Transmitting gender-type info in the 2nd year: mothers are more likely to engage in nurturing/household play with girls, and action play with boys