Play is a serious business. The pioneering developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky thought that, in the preschool years, play is the leading source of development.

Through play children learn and practice many basic social skills. They develop a sense of self, learn to interact with other children, how to make friends, how to lie and how to role-play.

The classic study of how play develops in children was carried out by Mildred Parten in the late 1920s at the Institute of Child Development in Minnesota. She closely observed children between the ages of 2 and 5 years and categorised their play into six types.

Parten collected data by systematically sampling the children's behaviour. She observed them for pre-arranged 1 minute periods which were varied systematically (Parten, 1933).

The thing to notice is that the first four categories of play don't involve much interaction with others, while the last two do. While children shift between the types of play, what Parten noticed was that as they grew up, children participated less in the first four types and more in the last two - those which involved greater interaction.

1. Unoccupied play: the child is relatively stationary and appears to be performing random movements with no apparent purpose. A relatively infrequent style of play.

2. Solitary play: the child is are completely engrossed in playing and does not seem to notice other children. Most often seen in children between 2 and 3 years-old.

3. Onlooker play: child takes an interest in other children's play but does not join in. May ask questions or just talk to other children, but the main activity is simply to watch.

4. Parallel play: the child mimics other children's play but doesn't actively engage with them. For example they may use the same toy.

5. Associative play: now more interested in each other than the toys they are using. This is the first category that involves strong social interaction between the children while they play.

6. Cooperative play: some organisation enters children's play, for example the playing has some goal and children often adopt roles and act as a group.

Unlike Jean Piaget who saw children's play in primarily cognitive developmental terms, Parten emphasised the idea that learning to play is learning how to relate to others.

玩耍是一项重要的事情.先锋发展心理学家Lev Vygotsky这么认为,在学前的几年里,玩耍时发展的头号来源.

孩子在玩耍中学习和联系许多基本的社交技能.他们发展出自我意识,学习如何与其他的孩子互相接触,如何交朋友,如何说谎和角色扮演.

在20世纪20年代后期,明尼苏达州儿童发展协会的Mildred Parten发表了玩耍对于儿童发展的经典研究.她密切观察了年纪在2到5岁的儿童并将他们的玩耍分为6个类型.

parten收集到的数据通过系统抽样儿童的行为.她在预先安排的1分钟时间内观察到他们具有不同的系统性.

要注意的是前四种类型的玩耍没有涉及到太多与他人的接触,然而后两者却有.Parten发现孩子在玩耍的类型中进行转换时,当他们渐渐长大,儿童参加前四种玩耍类型的减少而后两者增多 - 因为后两者有更多的互动.

占有型玩耍:孩子相对稳定并表现出没有明显目的随意行为.一种相对罕见的玩耍类型.

孤独型玩耍:孩子完全投入到玩耍中而似乎没有注意到其他的孩子.大多数出现在2到3岁的儿童中.

旁观型玩耍:孩子对其他在玩耍的孩子感兴趣但不加入他们.可能会向其他孩子提出问题或与其交谈,但对于主要活动只是简单的旁观.

类似型玩耍:孩子模仿其他孩子玩耍但并不主动加入他们.例如他们可能共用一个玩具.

联合型玩耍:现在对彼此比他们玩的玩具更感兴趣.这就是第一种涉及到在孩子玩耍时需要更多社交互动的类型.

合作型玩耍:一些组织加入到孩子的玩耍中,例如有目的的玩耍,孩子经常利用角色和假装是一个团队.

不像Jean Piaget 在初级认知发展期间内所看到的孩子们玩耍类型,Parten强调学习玩耍的这个想法就是学习如何与他人交流.