Types, Characteristics, and Examples of Cognitive Play
Source: Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall
Topics: Early Years (Birth-5), The Importance of Play, more...
| Types | Characteristics | Examples |
| Functional Play | Repetition of movements when new skills are being learned, with or without objects. | Infants and toddlers: grasping and pulling a mobile |
| Preschoolers and kindergartners: repeating a pattern on a pegboard | ||
| School-aged children: practicing throwing, catching, or doing acrobatics | ||
| Symbolic Play | Use of imagination and role play to transform the self and objects and to satisfy needs. | Infants and toddlers: pretending to drink from a baby bottle |
| Early symbolic play: mental representation that transforms one object for another. | Preschoolers and kindergartners: pretending a block is a broken car and pretending to fix it | |
| Later symbolic play: mental representation that transforms self and objects | School-aged children: using secret codes or made-up languages to communicate | |
| Constructive Play | Manipulation of objects or materials to make something. Combines functional play repetitive activity with symbolic representation of ideas. Occurs when children regulate their own creations or constructions. | Preschoolers and kindergartners: constructing a hospital room for a sick animal |
| School-aged children: creating an exhibit of a project just studied or designing virtual games and figure with electronic icons | ||
| Games with Rules | Activities with predetermined rules that are goal-oriented and often competitive with one or more individual. | Infants and Toddlers: playing pat-a-cake with an adult |
| Preschoolers and kindergartners: playing simple singing and circle games | ||
| School-aged children: tag, marbles, hopscotch, or contests such as relay races |
Excerpted From:
Excerpt from Creative Thinking and Arts-Based Learning Preschool Through Fourth Grade , by J.P. Isenberg & M. R. Jalongo, 2006 edition, p. 57.
© 2006, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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