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.

玩耍是一項重要的事情.先鋒發展心理學家Lev Vygotsky這么認為,在學前的幾年里,玩耍時發展的頭號來源.

孩子在玩耍中學習和聯系許多基本的社交技能.他們發展出自我意識,學習如何與其他的孩子互相接觸,如何交朋友,如何說謊和角色扮演.

在20世紀20年代后期,明尼蘇達州兒童發展協會的Mildred Parten發表了玩耍對于兒童發展的經典研究.她密切觀察了年紀在2到5歲的兒童并將他們的玩耍分為6個類型.

parten收集到的數據通過系統抽樣兒童的行為.她在預先安排的1分鐘時間內觀察到他們具有不同的系統性.

要注意的是前四種類型的玩耍沒有涉及到太多與他人的接觸,然而后兩者卻有.Parten發現孩子在玩耍的類型中進行轉換時,當他們漸漸長大,兒童參加前四種玩耍類型的減少而后兩者增多 - 因為后兩者有更多的互動.

占有型玩耍:孩子相對穩定并表現出沒有明顯目的隨意行為.一種相對罕見的玩耍類型.

孤獨型玩耍:孩子完全投入到玩耍中而似乎沒有注意到其他的孩子.大多數出現在2到3歲的兒童中.

旁觀型玩耍:孩子對其他在玩耍的孩子感興趣但不加入他們.可能會向其他孩子提出問題或與其交談,但對于主要活動只是簡單的旁觀.

類似型玩耍:孩子模仿其他孩子玩耍但并不主動加入他們.例如他們可能共用一個玩具.

聯合型玩耍:現在對彼此比他們玩的玩具更感興趣.這就是第一種涉及到在孩子玩耍時需要更多社交互動的類型.

合作型玩耍:一些組織加入到孩子的玩耍中,例如有目的的玩耍,孩子經常利用角色和假裝是一個團隊.

不像Jean Piaget 在初級認知發展期間內所看到的孩子們玩耍類型,Parten強調學習玩耍的這個想法就是學習如何與他人交流.