Mature Play
Based on Bodrova
with Vygotsky
influence
By: Rebecca Basler and
Courtney Garcia
Background on Lev Vygotsky
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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.
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Their ability to regulate their own behavior depends
on the maturation of the nervous system.
Vygotsky (Continued)
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Zone of proximal development
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Play is fun and imaginative, but not completely
free.
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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.
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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
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Background on Elena Bodrova
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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
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They become more in charge of
their learning.
Bodrova (Continued)
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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:
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Bodrova first identifies very important distinctive social
aspects of play, as defined by Mildred Parten in 1932.
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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
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Tool for measuring mature play: She made a
rubric based on the following criteria:
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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
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Playing Make Believe Outside
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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Boys kept approaching us with their toys (beanie
babies) and showing us what they collected.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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