Valen Grayle E.

Tundagui
MAPE 302

1. Research on the 4 theoretical frameworks of play. Discuss.

Current Theories of Play

1. Infantile Dynamics (Lewin)

Play occurs because the cognitive life space of the child is still unstructured, resulting in
failure to discriminate between real and unreal. The child passes into a region of playful
unreality where things are changeable and arbitrary.

The child plays because he is a child and because his cognitive dynamics do not allow for
any other way of behaving. Play is an expression of the child's uncoordinated approach
to the environment.

2. Cathartic Theory - (Freud 1908)

Play represents an attempt to partially satisfy drives or to resolve conflicts when the child
really doesn’t have the means to do so. When a child works through a drive through play
he has at least temporarily resolved it.

3. Psychoanalytic Theory - (Buhler - 1930. Anna Freud 1937)

Play represents not merely wish-fulfilling tendencies but also mastery -- an attempt
through repetition to cope with overwhelming anxiety-provoking situations. Play is
defensive as well as adaptive in dealing with anxiety'.

4. Cognitive Theory - (Piaget - 1962)

Play is derived from the child's working out of two fundamental characteristics of his
mode of experience and development. These are accommodation and assimilation -- the
attempts to integrate new experiences into the relatively limited number of motor and
cognitive skills available at each age.

Accommodation- the attempt to imitate and interact physically with the environment.

Assimilation - the attempt to integrate externally derived precepts or motor actions in a

limited amount of schemata.

2. List down and describe the stages of play.

The Sensorimotor Stage

During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge
through sensory experiences and manipulating objects. A child's entire experience at the earliest
period of this stage occurs through basic reflexes, senses, and motor responses.

Birth to 2 Years

Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:

 Know the world through movements and sensations

 Learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and
listening
 Learn that things continue to exist even when they cannot be seen (object permanence)
 Realize that they are separate beings from the people and objects around them
 Realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around them

The Preoperational Stage

The foundations of language development may have been laid during the previous stage, but the
emergence of language is one of the major hallmarks of the preoperational stage of
development.3

2 to 7 Years

Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:

 Begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects
 Tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others
 Getting better with language and thinking, but still tend to think in very concrete terms

The Concrete Operational Stage

While children are still very concrete and literal in their thinking at this point in development,
they become much more adept at using logic.2 The egocentrism of the previous stage begins to
disappear as kids become better at thinking about how other people might view a situation.

7 to 11 Years

Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:

 Begin to think logically about concrete events

 Begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short,
wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example
 Thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete
 Begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle
The Formal Operational Stage
The final stage of Piaget's theory involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive
reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas.3 At this point, adolescents and young adults
become capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically
about the world around them.

Age 12 and Up

Major characteristics and developmental changes during this time:

 Begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems

 Begins to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that
require theoretical and abstract reasoning
 Begins to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific
information

3. References
Retrieved From:
http://www.csun.edu/~sb4310/theoriesplay.htm
https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457