PEERS
CHAPTER 8
SOME DEFINITIONS….
• Peer – Another child of roughly the same age
• Short interactions, minimal commitment
• Friend – A peer with whom the child has a special relationship
• Regular, sustained interactions, reciprocal liking and respect
• Dyads – Interactions between pairs of children
• Groups - Cliques, teams, and crowds with norms, rules, and hierarchies
PLAY AND PRETEND PLAY (SUTTON-SMITH & KELLY-BYRNE, 1984)
• Play: activities that are pursued for their own sake.
• Only motivation is the enjoyment received from play
• Becomes more complex as children age
• Ex: banging pans together; playing hopscotch
• Pretend Play: make-believe activities in which children create new
symbolic relationships
• Object Substitution: using a broom to represent a horse
• Sociodramatic Play: playing doctor, teacher
• Emerges around 18 months
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY OR GAME AT
• Age 2?
• Age 3?
• Age 5?
TYPES OF COGNITIVE PLAY (SMILANSKY, 1968)
Type
Description
Functional Play
Simple repetitive muscle movements with
or without objects
Constructive Play
Manipulation of objects to construct or
create something
Dramatic Play
Substitution of an imaginary situation to
satisfy the child’s personal wishes and
needs
Games with rules
Acceptance of prearranged rules and the
adjustment to these rules
TYPES OF SOCIAL PLAY (PARTEN, 1932, 1933)
• Observational study of 34 nursery school children, aged 2 to 4.5
• Observed daily for 1 minute at a morning free play hour to reach total
of 60 minute observations
• Group Size: All children typically played in groups of 2, but the size of
the group increased with age
• Most popular activities: sandbox, playing family/house/dolls, trains,
kiddie-car
• As children aged, preference for activities became more complex
• Youngest: preferred sandbox
• 3-year olds: preferred family/house/dolls
• Older: clay, paper, paints
TYPES OF SOCIAL PLAY (PARTEN, 1932, 1933)
Type
Description
Unoccupied Play
Play limited to child’s own body. Child is occupying self with
anything of interest in the environment.
Solitary Play
Child plays alone and his focused on his own play.
Onlooker Play
Children watch or talk to other children engaged in play
activity. Asks questions or gives suggestions, but not
involved in play activity.
Parallel Play
Children play in similar activities, often side-by-side. Do not
interact with each other. Play BESIDE rather than WITH
other children.
Associative Play
Children play with other children. Interact by sharing toys
and commenting on each other’s activities. Not working
together on the activity.
Cooperative Play
Children play with each other and are not completely
interacting. Cooperating, reciprocating, sharing common
goals.
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN TYPES OF PLAY
GIRLS
• Quiet games, small groups, near
school buildings, close to adult
supervision
• Prefer play involving artistic
endeavors, books, or dolls
• Like unstructured activities
• Are more intimate and exchange
more information than boys
• Dyadic Play
BOYS
• Active-Forceful Play
• Play high-energy, run-and-chase
games in large groups that take up
nearly 10 times as much as space as
girls’ play
• More competitive in their play than
girls are
• Prefer organized games controlled
by rules
• Group Play
CAUSES OF TYPES OF PLAY (PARTEN, 1932, 1933)
• Age
•
Negatively correlated with Unoccupied, Solitary, Parallel
•
Positively Correlated with Associative, Cooperative
• IQ
•
Negatively correlated with unoccupied, solitary, onlooker
•
Positively correlated with Parallel, Associative, Parallel
• Gender of Peer
•
Playing with same-sex friends increases gender-stereotypes play activities
•
Mixed-sex play involves no non-stereotyped activities
• Greater pretend play if
•
High SES and Educational Level of Parents
•
Discuss inner states with siblings during play
OUTCOMES OF PLAY
• More complex cognitive and social play
• Role taking - Empathy, Role-taking – Spatial egocentrism, popularity, maturity,
high self-esteem, better ToM
• The Bad - Nonsocial Play in preschool linked to following outcomes in late
childhood/adolescence
• Peer rejection, social anxiety, loneliness, depression, low self-esteem, low
academic performance
• The Good - NonSocial Play
• May provide indicator of low social responsiveness (e.g., autism)
• Develops emotions and language, independent/maturity, attention spans, task
persistence, problem solving by self and with peers, high self-esteem
VIDEO ACTIVITY!
• Video #1
• Unoccupied
• Video #2
• Solitary
• Video #3
• Onlooker
• Video #4
• Parallel
• Video #5
• Associative
• Video #6
• Cooperative