Periods in the Development of Play
Not only is play natural, but numerous scientific studies reveal the fact that in the animal world and in man’s life play contributes in no unimportant degree to the individual’s development. These scientific studies have shown that play follows definite lines of development. There is first the play of early infancy, which consists in the rhythmical movement of the limbs and in the grasping after objects which satisfy the senses. This is the period of the rattle. There is at this stage no regard for others, no social interest. Then comes a second stage, where play is made up of imitative acts. This is the period of the girl’s doll and of the boy’s kit of tools. The child’s attention is now centered on others and their doings, and this outward attention furnishes the individual with his models of action. Then come the plays of contest and competition, when the child, now of school age, matches himself against his companions in speed or strength. This is the period of running games. Imitation has ripened into the kind of rivalry which helps the individual to realize his personal powers. Following competition comes the period of team play, in which social union with some of one’s companions is combined with contest against others. The adolescent child is now becoming aware of the uses of social sympathy and co-operation. At each of these stages some of the earlier forms of play survive, and all ripen into the form of play characteristic of adult life, where the competitions are against intellectual obstacles more than against physical. Adult play demands skill and intellectual mastery of complex problems.
When one has learned that there is a natural and orderly evolution of the play impulse, one realizes that it is rational to follow this natural order in promoting individual development. Play takes on a dignity that it never had in the days when it was looked on as an uncurbed attribute of infancy to be tolerated only because there seemed no possible way of eradicating it.