From the moment they are born, children develop as social beings and learn to play and interact with others. Interactions and play by children, right from the beginning,  follow a sequence as do many other aspects of their development. Through these steps, they become increasingly accomplished players.  As Betty Jones, my mentor and a beloved and emeritus professor at Pacific Oaks College, writes, “ To become a master player is the height of developmental achievement for children 3-5 years old. Master players are skilled at representing their experiences symbolically in self-initiated improvisational drama. Sometimes, alone, sometimes, in collaboration with others, they play out their fantasies and the events of their daily lives. Through pretend play, young children consolidate their understanding of the world, their language, and their social skills.” (1992) Elizabeth Jones and Gretchen Reynolds, The Play’s the Thing, Teacher’s College Press.

I believe our job as teachers and parents is to support Children’s play and to help them to keep getting better at it. In order to do that , it is helpful to know the developmental stages children pass through on the road to accomplished play.

When children begin preschool, they already have developed trusting relationships with their parents and other caregivers. They also generally have had experience being around other children both as solitary players who are playing with different things but in close proximity and as onlookers who are watching older kids play but seldom joining in.

Sensorimotor Play

From infancy through the 2’s, children are sensorimotor explorers. Their world is all new and exciting and everything is exciting to play with- touching it, tasting it, and messing about with it. They are curious about everything. They are also are learning about the play their bodies can do- crawling, walking, running. Betty Jones, in Playing to Get Smart, (2006) says “They are building the base of physical knowledge on which all later learning depends. And they are beginning to learn to play with other people.”

Parallel Play-2’s and early 3’s

When children enter preschool around 3 years old, they often start playing with other children in a side-by-side or parallel fashion, sharing toys but behaving independently. They can be doing the same thing i.e. trucks and roads, and be enjoying each other’s company, but the play often is not interactive or shared in a sustained way. They are learning to share the space and find ways to divide up the limited resources available i.e. “You can have the sand wheel first and then he can have it after you.”

Associative Play- 3’s

Children next move to rather disorganized play with each other. They are making connections and trying to put something together but it usually without the assignment of activities or roles and the individual children play in their own way. The connections are often fairly brief and, at times, they can frustrate each other. Every one is playing from a different mental plan. It can also be joyful and silly with no big plan to achieve but great fun in the moment. It tends to be very spontaneous.

Cooperative Play- late 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s with increased sophistication and length of play.

Cooperative play is achieved over many, many months of play and practice at being together. In this play, the children didn’t preplan to build a zoo but it emerged as they went. This is an early stage cooperative experience.

Next, children in pairs of two or groups of 3-5 will engage in an organized form of play.This airplane trip is a more complex play activity that involved packing and ticketing before they got on the plane.It emerged from spontaneous dramatic play.

Conflict resolution and problem solving skills are called upon to arrive at a cohesive plan to which everyone is agreeable. Children often will act out a fantasy or experience that has happened to them in real life. In this picnic, outfits were put together;  food was arranged, packed up, and arranged on the “blankets”; the babies and bears were put in their carriers. Multi-step requires some coordination and they were able to sustain their involvement.

By the time children leave for Kindergarten, they have become accomplished players. It is a wonderful and important skill to have and it will serve them well throughout their lives.