Play
Content
Last summer I went to an amazing desert in the north of Colombia called
La Guajira. It is isolated from civilization; a place full of nature,
hammocks, and Guayu indigenous people. One day I was walking
through the dessert and saw two Guayu kids cutting out and decorating
some paper cellphone templates. I thought it was their homework for
school, nevertheless when I asked them they said they were for playing.
I couldn´t believe the irony, we had gone all the way there to get away
from our phones, city, technology; and these girls were in this natural
Paradise cutting paper cellphones. It is interesting how they were
somehow playing to be us, and we were playing to be them.
My ideas about play are portrayed by historian Johan Huizinga´s quote
from “Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture”, because I
believe that play is intrinsically related to a natural need that can´t only
be seen in humans but also in animals. Play is usually associated to
children, nevertheless it can be seen in all stages of life. The difference
between the types of play at different stages of life relies on the kind
and complexity on the game.
There is a great potential of using play as a vehicle to educate and
shape how people see and relate to the world, as well as to one another.
One of the most interesting characteristics of play is that is self
motivated and based on collaboration. This means that players can get
ownership of the game, transform it, and take it to the next level. It also
means that it encourages human interaction, exchange of ideas, and the
development of social abilities. The third principle of play is related to
human nature, and states that it is a form of practicing for real life
experiences as a mechanism of survival.
These characteristics of intrinsic motivation, community, and survival
are the same ones that are tried to be achieved by modern formal
education. For instance, there is the necessity to motivate students to
seek knowledge on their own. Also, there is encouraged the
development of a community to exchange ideas and develop social
abilities in the students. Furthermore, the ultimate purpose of education
is to develop knowledge and skills in order to survive to contemporary
challenges.
Therefore
-
Play as an informal type of learning
Playing: the most important form of early learning.
Learning: the way we construct reality
The toys were the totems of the industrial revolution
“Play reflects how children understand the world, and it also provides
them with opportunities to learn and refine their social, emotional,
motor, and problemsolving skills”.
HACER INFOGRAPHIC TYPES OF PLAY ACCORDING TO AGE
*Interesting enough the levels of play go hand by hand to the levels a
child develops in regard to its own awareness and its relation to the
world.
Types of play:
According to Henninger (2013), the different types of play children
engage in can be generalized into two categories: cognitive and social.
Dramatic play (37 years old) involves the child substituting one object for
another, and/or substituting their role as a child for another role. This type
of play allows children to portray and express their view of the world, and
is strongly encouraged.
Finally, games with rules (7 years old and onwards) appear as children
enter a concrete operational level of thinking (Piaget, in Crain, 2005). The
rules established by the game or the children if it is a newly created game,
are agreed upon and upheld by the players involved.
Building upon this, cooperative play (4 ½ to 7 or 8 years old) takes place
in which children are working towards the same goal. One characteristic of
this type of play that makes it unique from associative play is that children
are collaborating and even assigning responsibilities among themselves to
accomplish the same goal (Henniger, 2013).
Similar to the cognitive play of games with rules, cooperativecompetitive
play (7 or 8 years old and onwards) is described as being cooperative in
the sense that the children are playing to accomplish the same endmeans
and adhering to established rules, but they are also competing with others
to accomplish that same endmeans. In this case, only a group of players
or a single player can achieve victory and works to obtain it before others
do.
Development of Playing
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Classify
Create (Build)
Role Play
Games with rules
Cooperative learning
Competitive playing
La Guajira. It is isolated from civilization; a place full of nature,
hammocks, and Guayu indigenous people. One day I was walking
through the dessert and saw two Guayu kids cutting out and decorating
some paper cellphone templates. I thought it was their homework for
school, nevertheless when I asked them they said they were for playing.
I couldn´t believe the irony, we had gone all the way there to get away
from our phones, city, technology; and these girls were in this natural
Paradise cutting paper cellphones. It is interesting how they were
somehow playing to be us, and we were playing to be them.
My ideas about play are portrayed by historian Johan Huizinga´s quote
from “Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture”, because I
believe that play is intrinsically related to a natural need that can´t only
be seen in humans but also in animals. Play is usually associated to
children, nevertheless it can be seen in all stages of life. The difference
between the types of play at different stages of life relies on the kind
and complexity on the game.
There is a great potential of using play as a vehicle to educate and
shape how people see and relate to the world, as well as to one another.
One of the most interesting characteristics of play is that is self
motivated and based on collaboration. This means that players can get
ownership of the game, transform it, and take it to the next level. It also
means that it encourages human interaction, exchange of ideas, and the
development of social abilities. The third principle of play is related to
human nature, and states that it is a form of practicing for real life
experiences as a mechanism of survival.
These characteristics of intrinsic motivation, community, and survival
are the same ones that are tried to be achieved by modern formal
education. For instance, there is the necessity to motivate students to
seek knowledge on their own. Also, there is encouraged the
development of a community to exchange ideas and develop social
abilities in the students. Furthermore, the ultimate purpose of education
is to develop knowledge and skills in order to survive to contemporary
challenges.
Therefore
-
Play as an informal type of learning
Playing: the most important form of early learning.
Learning: the way we construct reality
The toys were the totems of the industrial revolution
“Play reflects how children understand the world, and it also provides
them with opportunities to learn and refine their social, emotional,
motor, and problemsolving skills”.
HACER INFOGRAPHIC TYPES OF PLAY ACCORDING TO AGE
*Interesting enough the levels of play go hand by hand to the levels a
child develops in regard to its own awareness and its relation to the
world.
Types of play:
According to Henninger (2013), the different types of play children
engage in can be generalized into two categories: cognitive and social.
Dramatic play (37 years old) involves the child substituting one object for
another, and/or substituting their role as a child for another role. This type
of play allows children to portray and express their view of the world, and
is strongly encouraged.
Finally, games with rules (7 years old and onwards) appear as children
enter a concrete operational level of thinking (Piaget, in Crain, 2005). The
rules established by the game or the children if it is a newly created game,
are agreed upon and upheld by the players involved.
Building upon this, cooperative play (4 ½ to 7 or 8 years old) takes place
in which children are working towards the same goal. One characteristic of
this type of play that makes it unique from associative play is that children
are collaborating and even assigning responsibilities among themselves to
accomplish the same goal (Henniger, 2013).
Similar to the cognitive play of games with rules, cooperativecompetitive
play (7 or 8 years old and onwards) is described as being cooperative in
the sense that the children are playing to accomplish the same endmeans
and adhering to established rules, but they are also competing with others
to accomplish that same endmeans. In this case, only a group of players
or a single player can achieve victory and works to obtain it before others
do.
Development of Playing
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Classify
Create (Build)
Role Play
Games with rules
Cooperative learning
Competitive playing
