Mature Play Based on Bodrova with Vygotsky influence By: Rebecca Basler and Courtney Garcia Background on Lev Vygotsky Born November 19, 1896 in Russia A 2002 survey revealed that Vygotsky was the 83rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Sociocultural influence on cognitive development Play is critical for higher mental functions. Self- Regulation children listen to external commands before their own. Their ability to regulate their own behavior depends on the maturation of the nervous system. Vygotsky (Continued) Zone of proximal development Play is fun and imaginative, but not completely free. Scaffolding is used to move to new zones, through the help of a moderator. 3 main aspects of play: Create an imaginary situation, take on and act out roles, and follow a set of rules specific to the roles. They create implicit rules that must be followed. i.e. “Pretend we’re sisters.” “They are twins so they have to act the same.” Vygotsky (Continued) “Henceforth play is such that the explanation for it must always be that it is the imaginary, illusory realization of unrealizable desires. Imagination is a new formation that is not present in the conciousness of the very raw young child, is totally absent in animals, and represents a specifically human form of conscious activity. Like all functions of consciousness, it originally arises from action.” -Lev Vygostsky, Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes Background on Elena Bodrova Birthdate: Unknown. Moved from Russia to the United States. She collaborated with Deborah Leong to creat the Tools of the Mind curriculum in 1993 to improve children’s learning. Strongly influenced by Vygotsky, worked with a lot of his students and colleagues. She has Ph.D in Child Development and Educational Psychology from Moscow State University. In order to succeed, children must learn more than a set of skills, but rather master the tools of the mind They become more in charge of their learning. Bodrova (Continued) Play develops from infancy to preschool First, they are only focused on the objects in front of them. Then they engage in repetitive behavior (i.e. a toddler rocking a baby doll.) Around the age of 4, they develop the ability to create multiple roles and symbolic props. As children grow older, they stop engaging in imaginative play and choose board games or sports instead. Let’s Understand a Few Things First: Bodrova first identifies very important distinctive social aspects of play, as defined by Mildred Parten in 1932. 1. Isolation Children play alone. 2. Engagement in Parallel Play a form of play in which children play adjacent to each other, but do not try to influence one another's behavior. Children usually play alone during parallel play but are interested in what other children are doing. 3. Engagment in Associative Play when the child is interested in the people playing but not in coordinating their activities with those people, or when there is no organized activity at all. There is a substantial amount of interaction involved, but the activities are not in sync Engagment in Cooperative Play when a child is interested both in the people playing and in the activity they are doing. In cooperative play, the activity is organized, and participants have assigned roles. Bodrova: Mature Play Tool for measuring mature play: She made a rubric based on the following criteria: The extent to which children interact with each other If play includes oral language and gestures to communicate role meaning during play The amount of time for uninterrupted play occurs Intervention of teacher during play (not relevant) The extent to which props are created to support children’s play roles Examples of Mature Play Playing Make Believe Outside Aspects to Note: Associative Play (3 points) Children adjust their actions and language to indicate a new role. (4 points) Moderator focuses on the roles in terms of pretend actions, role speech, scenarios, and dilemmas. (4 points.) Moderator stays in play scenario beyond need. (3 points) No props visibly created by children. (1 point) Let’s Play Kitchen Aspects to Note: Parallel Play (2 points) Children’s speech uses only labels for the person or action of their role. (i.e. “I’m the mom.”) (2 points) Playing in role of mother (2 points) Lots of teacher interaction: Teacher encourages use of theme-related vocabulary. (3 points) Teacher intervenes in play to teach a specific skill. (2 points.) Children use props realistically and do not invent props. (1 point) ITS GAME TIME! Directions: Now that you have learned about mature play, let’s apply that knowledge. Help us drag each word into the appropriate spot. Let’s play! (but not mature play) Question and Hypothesis Question of Study: Since Preschool age is the prime age for mature play, does it decreasewith age? Subquestion: How will the younger girls’ level of mature play compare with that of the older boys’? Hypothesis: A.) The level of mature play will decrease as their cognitive abilities increase with age. B.) The levels of mature play by the younger girls will not be closely related to that of the older boys, as the developmental gap does not start until adolescence. Set-up for our study Participants: 12 Preschoolers, and 10 secondgraders We set out a couple of pre-determined toys, and after the children ‘signed’ the assent forms, we told them to go play and that was the only instruction given. They happily obliged. We would then observe how they played according to the rubric set up by Bodrova Each group played for 15 minutes. Our Study: Pre-school A boy named all the animals, preferred to speak to the observers. “This is her sister.” Overheard from two girls playing with the stuffed animals. Two boys focused solely on the cars, no speech engagement. One boy ran around fixing nonexistent objects with a toy wrench. Creation of “bridge” = 6 hexagonal blocks flat on the ground, which no one was allowed to cross. Boys were louder and more talkative than the girls, but the girls engaged in more voice imitation and role play. Score: 13 Our Study: Pre-school cont. Boys kept approaching us with their toys (beanie babies) and showing us what they collected. Infer that they’re used to teacher playing with them perhaps. Girls playing with stuffed animals: used voices, “I’m Mr. Turtle” also heard, “ribbet” when playing with frog. Role playing with stuffed animals. Boys were louder than the girls, and more talkative to us. Boys—putting things in order, making collections. Started fighting over a toy (not sharing) Girls—more cooperative play. Our Study: Second-grade Blocks and stuffed animals were the only toys the students chose to use. Boys built vertical, more complex structures Individual wall- building contest 3 boys, 1 girl, continually knocked down each other’s walls. Girls were more interested in the official name on the Beanie Babies tag. “You’re my twin.” –two girls with matching parrots. Interaction between boy and girl with stuffed animals: “sidekicks,” disorganized, infrequent speech. Assigning genders to the animals. Score: 13 Our Study: Second-grade cont Played with blocks and beanie babies. A girl and a boy acted like the beanie babies were fighting At one point, I heard a girl mention that they should start a play A large portion of time was used to look at the names of the beanie babies A girl and a couple boys were playing with blocks, it seemed like parallel play at first, but it may have been like a competition. They would inspect each other’s buildings. Implications of Study We did not have access to some certain toys we wanted Did not get exact amount of children that said we would Could only play for 15 minutes, instead of the 30 minutes that were recommended. More drama-related props would have created a more accurate scenario fitted to the rubric. Conclusion The hypothesis was correct in an interesting way. While each group received the same score based on the rubric, the styles of play were different. Technically, the preschoolers engaged in more imaginative play, while the 2nd graders engaged in more competitive, creative activities. Transitioning to a different form of play. The younger girls engaged in more mature play than the older boys based on their focus on roles and voice imitation. References http://www.childdevelopmentmedia.com/art icles/play-the-work-of-lev-vygotsky/ http://www.intermarceccs.com/site/wpcontent/uploads/2013/02/The-Importance-ofBeing-Playful1.pdf Theories of Development (concepts and applications) by William Crain Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes by Lev Vygotsky