Symbolic play
is the pretend play, the play in which the significance of objects and actions
changes in order to respond to a hypothetical situation. In the symbolic play
children use the objects not only with their conventional use, but they give
them a different status, adjusting them to their needs and ideas (e.g. a little
box becomes a car or train). Also, they reproduce behaviours, their own or
others’, and so they imitate for example that the dad sleeps, they feed their
doll etc.
The symbolic
play appears after the first year of life and is characterized by the capacity
of mental representation. Important role to the development of this capacity is
played by the conquests of the child in the field of language, especially the
ability to distinguish the symbols (eg the word “car”) from the objects that
are referred to (eg the car itself).
The importance of symbolic play
The symbolic
play is an important bridge with the reality, it satisfies emotional and
cognitive needs and it’s crucial for the “initiation” of the child to the
culture and its values. Furthermore, it minimizes the impact that an action
could have under other circumstances, and so it helps the child to express
itself and learn in a pressure-free environment. Thus, they are created the suitable
conditions for experimentation, exploration and use of objects or and roles
with imagination and originality. Also, the child expresses needs, desires,
feelings and prohibited behaviours and experiences roles of everyday life.
Vygotsky’s theory about pretend play
Play is not
just a prominent feature of childhood, but it guides the development, it’s the
“driving force” of the development. “As in the focus of a magnifying glass,
play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form and it is itself
a major source of development. In play a child always behaves beyond his
average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he were a head
taller than himself… play creates a zone of proximal development”
(Vygotsky, 1978).
Why children
play?
The child of
preschool age, to overcome the tension of the many unfulfilled desires/ needs
(which cannot be fulfilled immediately), plays and his play allows him to carry
out these needs through imagination. These needs create the “imaginary
situation”; the child creates the imaginary situation in his play as long as
his needs/desires are not fulfilled in reality.
Imaginary
play and rules
So as to
create the imaginary situation, the child must set and maintain rules, which
derive from the imaginary play itself. But if the imaginary play has rules,
then what about the game with rules? Every game with rules contains an
imaginary situation in a concealed form. “The development from games with an
overt imaginary situation and covert rules to games with overt rules and a
covert imaginary situation outlines the evolution of children’s play” (Vygotsky, 1978).
When objects
lose their determining force?
In play, the
child is acting based on the meaning rather than on the real object. So, he
acts independently from what is in the visual field and his action is
consequence of ideas rather than objects. The substitute object acquires its
meaning not from its external similarity with the real, but because it permits
child to act as he would act with the real object.
A sister with
a clear role!
At the
symbolic play of roles, characteristics and rules implied by the role and which
are not so clear for the child in the daily life, are becoming clear by playing
the role. That go unnoticed in real life of the child, becomes rule of
behaviour during the play. This maintains the understanding about the role, but
also it “requires” the child to use the characteristics of the role as rules.
A candy that
is not eaten!
Playing, the
child does everything he wants, but at the same time he subjugates himself, by
will, to rules and he renounces his most delightful habits. He will never eat
the candy when this, under the rules of the game is not eaten- it’s the wheel
of his car.
Therefore, in
the game…
-the child achieves the maximum self-control and at the same time does
that he likes best, he has the greatest self-determination
-the child achieves the first emancipation from the situational
constraints
-the child
appropriates socio-cultural practices.
Thus, play
creates zone of proximal development
The child can behave above his daily development, in play it is as
though he were a head taller than himself. The context of play creates the
conditions to for operating in a more advanced level, even when the child plays
alone.
Bibliography
Vygotsky L., The
Role of Play in Development. In Mind in Society (Trans. M. Cole), Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1978
Avgitidou S.,
Play: Modern research and and teaching approaches, ΤΥΠΟΘΗΤΩ, Athens,
2001
Eleni Skafida, Greece. She is 22 years old and studied on National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, at the Faculty of Early Childhood Education from September 2008 to July 2012.
She has a great interest in education of little children and she's searching for alternative approaches and ways of educating. She truly believes in the power of play on children's development and its role as an educational teaching strategy. She's also researching on children's literature and books but also on new technologies in education.
