The Development of Play During Childhood: Forms and Possible Functions

Child Psychology and Psychiatry Review

Volumn 3, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 51-57

  Pellegrini, Anthony D ^a   Smith, Peter K ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

development; function; Play

Indexed keywords

EID: 85010187105     PISSN: 13606417     EISSN: 14753588     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1360641798001476     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. Bakeman, R., & Brownlee, J. (1980). The strategic use of parallel play: A sequential analysis. Child Development, 51, 873–875.
2. Bateson, P. P. G. (1976). Rules and reciprocity in behavioural development. In P. P. G. Bateson & R. Hinde (Eds.), Growing points in ethology (pp. 401–421). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. Beckoff, M., & Byers,J. A. (1992). Time, energy, and play. Animal Behaviour, 44, 981–982.
4. Belsky, J., & Most, R. (1981). From exploration to play. Developmental Psychology, 17, 630–639.
5. Bjorklund, D., & Green, B. (1992). The adaptive nature of cognitive immaturity. American Psychologist, 47, 46–54.
6. Boulton, M. J. (1992). Participation in playground activities in middle school. Educational Research, 34, 167–182.
7. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8. Bruner, J. S. (1972). The nature and uses of immaturity. American Psychologist, 27, 687–708.
9. Burghardt, G. (1984). On the origins of play. In P. K. Smith (Ed.), Play in animals and humans (pp. 5–42). Oxford: Blackwell.
10. Burns, S. & Brainerd, C. (1979). Effects of constructive and dramatic play on perspective taking in very young children. Developmental Psychology, 15, 512–521.
11. Byers, J. A., & Walker, C. (1995). Refining the motor training hypothesis for the evolution of play. American Naturalist, 146, 25–40.
12. Caro, T. M. (1995). Short-term costs and correlates of play in cheetahs. Animal Behaviour, 49, 333–345.
13. Costabile, A., Smith, P. K., Matheson, L., Aston, J., Hunter, T., & Boulton, M. (1991). Cross-national comparison of how children distinguish playful and seriousfighting. Developmental Psychology, 27, 881–887.
14. Dansky, J., & Silverman, I. (1973). Effects of play on associative fluency of preschool-age children. Developmental Psychology, 9, 38–43.
15. DiPietro, J. A. (1981). Rough-and-tumble play: A function of gender. Developmental Psychology, 17, 50–58.
16. Fagen, R. (1981). Animal play behaviour. New York: Oxford.
17. Fein, G. (1981). Pretend play: An integrative review. Child Development, 52, 1095–1118.
18. Gomendio, M. (1988). The development of different types of play in gazelles: Implications for the nature and functions of play. Animal Behaviour, 36, 825–836.
19. Groos, K. (1898). The play of animals. New York: Appleton.
20. Groos, K. (1901). The play of man. New York: Appleton.
21. Haight, W. L., & Miller, P. J. (1993). Pretending at home: Early development in a sociocultural context. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
22. Hartup, W. W. (1996). The company they keep: Friendships and their developmental significance. Child Development, 67, 1–13.
23. Hinde, R. A. (1980). Ethology. London: Fontana.
24. Howes, C. (1994). The collaborative construction of pretend. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
25. Humphreys, A. P., & Smith, P. K. (1984). Rough-and-tumble play in preschool and playground. In P. K. Smith (Ed.), Play in animals and humans (pp. 241–270). Oxford: Blackwell.
26. Humphreys, A. P., & Smith, P. K. (1987). Rough-and-tumble play, friendship, and dominance in school children: Evidence for continuity and change with age. Child Development, 58, 201–212.
27. Hutt, C. (1966). Exploration and play in children. Symposia of the Zoological Society of London, 18, 61–81.
28. Jarrold, C., Carruthers, P., Smith, P. K., & Boucher, J. (1994). Pretend play: Is it metarepresentational? Mind and Language, 9, 445–468.
29. Leslie, A. M. (1987). Pretence and representation: The origins of ‘theory of mind’ Psychological Review, 94, 412–426.
30. Lillard, A. S. (1993). Pretend play skills and the child's theory of mind. Child Development, 64, 348–371.
31. Maccoby, E. E. (1986). Social groupings in childhood. In D. Olweus, J. Block, & M. Radke-Yarrow (Eds.), Development of antisocial and prosocial behavior. New York: Academic Press.
32. Martin, P., & Bateson, P. P. G. (1993). Measuring behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
33. Martin, P., & Caro, T. (1985). On the function of play and its role in behavioural development. In J. Rosenblatt, C. Beer, M. Busnel, & P. Slater (Eds.), Advances in the study of behaviour, Vol. 15 (pp. 59–103).
34. McCall, R. (1977). Challenges to a science of developmental psychology. Child Development, 48, 333–394.
35. McGrew, W. C. (1972). An ethological study of children's behaviour. London: Academic Press.
36. Meaney, M. J., Stewart, J., & Beatty, W. W. (1985). Sex differences in social play. In J. Rosenblatt, C. Beer, M. C. Bushnell, & P. Slater (Eds.), Advances in the study of behavior, Vol. 15 (pp. 2–58). New York: Academic Press.
37. Pellegrini, A. D. (1984). Identifying causal elements in the thematic fantasy play paradigm. American Education Research Journal, 19, 443–452.
38. Pellegrini, A. D. (1988). Elementary school children's rough-and-tumble play and social competence. Developmental Psychology, 24, 802–806.
39. Pellegrini, A. D. (1990). Elementary school children's playground behaviour: Implications for social cognitive development. Children's Environment Quarterly, 7, 8–16.
40. Pellegrini, A. D. (1993). Boys' rough-and-tumble play, social competence and group composition. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 11, 237–248.
41. Pellegrini, A. D. (1995a). School recess and playground behaviour. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
42. Pellegrini, A. D. (1995b). A longitudinal study of boys' rough-and-tumble play and dominance during early adolescence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 16, 77–93.
43. Pellegrini, A. D., & Bjorklund, D. F. (1997). The role of recess in children's cognitive performance. Educational Psychologist, 31, 181–187.
44. Pellegrini, A. D., & Davis, P. (1993). Relations between children's playground and classroom behaviour. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 63, 86–95.
45. Pellegrini, A. D., & Galda, L. (1993). Ten years after: A re-examination of the relations between symbolic play and literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 28, 162–175.
46. Pellegrini, A. D., Galda, L., Shockley, B., & Stahl, S. (1995). The nexus of social and literacy events at home and school: Implications for primary school oral language and literacy. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 65, 273–285.
47. Pellegrini, A. D., Horvat, M., & Huberty, P. D. (1998). The relative costs of children's physical activity play. Animal Behaviour, 55.
48. Pellegrini, A. D., Huberty, P. D., & Jones, I. (1995). The effects of recess timing on children's playground and classroom behaviours. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 845–864.
49. Pellegrini, A. D., & Perlmutter, J. C. (1987). A re-examination of the Smilansky-Parten matrix of play behavior. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 2, 89–96.
50. Pellegrini, A. D., & Perlmutter, J. C. (1989). Classroom contextual effects on children's play. Developmental Psychology, 25, 289–296.
51. Pellegrini, A. D., & Smith, P. K. (1998). Physical activity play: The nature and function of a neglected aspect of play. Child Development, 69.
52. Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams, and imitation. New York: Norton.
53. Roggman, L., & Langlois, J. (1987). Mothers, infants, and toys: Social play correlates of attachment. Infant Behaviour and Development, 10, 233–237.
54. Rubin, K. H., Fein, G., & Vandenberg, B. (1983). Play. In E. M. Hetherington (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Socialization, personality, and social development, Vol IV (pp. 693–774). New York: Wiley.
55. Simon, T., & Smith, P. K. (1985). Play and problem solving: A paradigm questioned. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 31, 73–86.
56. Smilansky, S. (1968). The effects of sociodramatic play on disadvantaged preschool children. New York: Wiley.
57. Smith, P. K. (1974). Social and fantasy play in young children. In B. Tizard & D. Harvey (Eds.), Biology of play. London: SIMP/Heinemann.
58. Smith, P. K. (1982). Does play matter? Functional and evolutionary aspects of animal and human play. The Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 5, 139–184.
59. Smith, P. K., (1988). Child's play and its role in early development: A re-evaluation of the ‘play ethos’. In A. Pellegrini (Ed.), Psychological bases for early education (pp. 207–226). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley.
60. Smith, P. K., & Connolly, K. (1980). The ecology of preschool behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
61. Smith, P. K., & Hagan, T. (1980). Effects of deprivation on exercise play in nursery school children. Animal Behaviour, 28, 922–928.
62. Smith, P. K., & Simon, T. (1984). The study of play and problem-solving in preschool children: Methodological problems and new directions. In P. K. Smith (Ed.), Play in animals and humans (pp. 199–216). Oxford: Blackwell.
63. Smith, P. K., & Syddall, S. (1978). Play and group play tutoring in preschool children: Is it play or tutoring that matters? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 48, 315–325.
64. Smith, P. K., & Vollstedt, R. (1985). On defining play. Child Development, 56, 1042–1050.
65. Smith, P. K., & Whitney, S. (1987). Play and associative fluency: Experimenter effects may be responsible for previous findings. Developmental Psychology, 23, 49–53.
66. Sylva, K., Bruner, J. S., & Genova, P. (1976). The role of play in the problem-solving behavior of children 3–5 years old. In J. S. Bruner, A. Jolly, & K. Sylva (Eds.), Play:Its role in development and evolution (pp. 244–261). New York: Basic Books.
67. Symons, D. (1978). Play and aggression: A study of rhesus monkeys. New York: Columbia University Press.
68. Tinbergen, N. (1963). On the aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie, 20, 410–433.
69. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.