PLAY AND IMAGINATION Milda Bredikyte Kajaani University Consortium University of Oulu

“Often, those human experiences that are the hardest to depict and understand are the most important. What is the meaning of love? Why do we experience death? What is the role of children’s play? Human beings all over the world are universally touched, at different times of their lives, by such experiences. Yet, comprehensive definition of these states elude us.” Tina Bruce

What is play ? Play is a fundamental human activity (it occurs across life span as well as across cultures) Play is the basic activity of early childhood Play is an expression of the child\s developing personality, sense of self, intellect, social capacity and physicality Play is essential for optimal development and learning in young children

Questions What is play activity for the children? Why children play? What is the relation between play and imagination? What is the relation between play and development? Does any play activity have developmental effects, what actually ”good” play activity is?

Why children play?  To make sense of and derive meaning from the context of their lives, Donaldson,  To keep control of their lives at least of that part which is their play, Garvey, 1977.

Play activity What is play activity? ”Play is the leading source of development in preschool years”, Vygotsky, What are the main functions of play activity? Development of higher mental processes such as: thinking, imagination, intention, generalized emotions

Memory, imagination, play Memory is a central psychological process of preschool age. Evolving memory ”gives birth” for imagination. ”In play a child creates an imaginary situation… Imagination is the new formation that is not present in the consciousness of the very young child”, Vygotsky, Imagination manifests itself through play activity.

What is imagination? ”The word imagination usually denotes the faculty of creating a picture of something in our heads and holding it there while we think about it”, Hughes, 1988.

Imagination 1 Vygotsky (2004) distinguished two basic types of human activity: reproductive and combinatorial or creative activities. ”Creative activity, based on the ability of our brain to combine elements, is called imagination or fantasy in psychology”, 2004, 4.

Imagination 2 Imagination is the basis of all human activity and an important component of all aspects of cultural life. Absolutely everything around us that was created by the hand of man is the product of human imagination and of creation based on this imagination, Vygotsky, 2002.

Imaginary space Play action is developing in imaginary plane, although physically child is acting in real space. The child in this ”flow” state is more real than ever. “construct mode” Donaldson (1992) - instead of here/now or there/then mind begin to concern itself with somewhere/sometime or anywhere/anytime. ”In play a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself... in play it is as though the child were trying to jump above the level of his normal behavior,” Vygotsky, 2002.

“Good” play - Sociodramatic play Sociodramatic play is recognized as the highest level of dramatic play (Christie, 1982) because it requires the combination of social and dramatic play skills. It requires creation of imaginary common sense field

Sociodramatic play Smilansky (1968) described six elements of play, which must be present in order for play to be considered sociodramatic:  Imitative role play  Make-believe with objects  Make-believe with actions and situations  Interaction  Verbal communication  Persistence

Egocentrism - play Iljenkov (1977) underlined that social play with peers enables children to overcome their egocentrism, which is not possible in interactions with adults. Only through a situation of controversy, hot discussion or most often a conflict children are able to accept others point of view.

Sawyer (1997, 2001) pointed out that one of the most improvisational activities of 3-to 5-year-old children is social pretend play, also called fantasy play, sociodramatic play, or role play. By creatively improvising their play drama, children are learning the creative skills that are essential for everyday social life. Rather than learning roles or scripts, children at play are learning how to improvise in conversations with others and how to create a conversational performance. Play is important because it is unscripted – it allows the child to practice improvisation. That’s why play has to be random and chaotic.

”Play is the source of development and creates the zone of proximal development.”, Vygotsky, ”The child moves forward essentially through play activity, Vygotsky, 2002.

According to Vygotsky (2002) play is converted to internal processes at school age, going over to: internal speech logical memory abstract thought rule based activities such as learning tasks and work

The play — development relationship can be compared with the (instruction) teaching — development relationship, but play provides a background for changes in needs and in consciousness of a much wider nature, Vygotsky, 2002.

Early childhood education - Play based education? Sensitive program developing children’s play is the foundation of early education. This is not something to be replaced by more rational, more realistic, knowledge based activities. Because all forms of human activities spring out from play activity. Only rich play experiences will lead to successful learning and life (in the broadest meaning of the word) activities.

References 1 Iljenkov, E. (1977). Uchitsia myslit’ (Learning to think). Sawyer, R.K. (1997) Pretend Play As Improvisation/Conversation in the Preschool Classroom. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Sawyer, R. K. (2001). Creating Conversations/Improvisation in Everyday Discourse. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press, Inc. Vygotsky, L.S. (1930, 2004) Imagination and creativity in childhood. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology 42, 1, 4 – 84. Vygotsky, L., S. (1933, 2002). Play and its Role in the Mental development of the Child.

References 2 Bruce, T. (1993). The Role of Play in Children’s Lives. In Childhood Education, Vol.69, #4. Donaldson, M. (1987). Children's Minds. London: Fontana Press. Donaldson, M. (1992). Human Minds. London: Penguin Book. Garvey, C. (1977). Play. In Bruner, J., Cole, M. & Lloyd, B. (Eds.). The developing child series. London: Collins/Fontana Open Books. Hughes, T. (1988). Myth and education. In K. Egan & D. Nadaner (Eds.), Imagination & Education (pp ). New York: Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Smilansky, S. (1968) The effects of sociodramatic play on disadvantaged preschool children. London: Wiley.