The Role of Play in the Life of the Child

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Cattanach

Pellegrini and Smith (1998) have provided a challenging review of the forms and possible functions of play during childhood, and Blatchford's (1998) paper on children's play reports a programme of research about the nature of play at school breaktimes that seems to be the sort of research that Pellegrini and Smith recommend in their conclusion, calling for more descriptive studies of children's play. When considering the nature and possible functioning of play during childhood Pellegrini and Smith explore general definitional issues. They suggest that play theorists such as Piaget and Vygotsky considered that play was the way that children learnt skills necessary for successful functioning in adulthood. Perhaps this is a simple way to express, for example, Vygotsky's (1978) descriptions of play in ‘The Role of Play in Development’ in Mind in society. Vygotsky states that in play a child creates an imaginary situation; that play is the place where a child spontaneously makes use of his ability to separate meaning from an object without knowing he is doing it. The creation of an imaginary situation is the first manifestation of the child's emancipation from situational constraints and the primary paradox of play is that the child operates with an alienated meaning in a real situation. Vygotsky may be describing an important skill for successful functioning in adulthood, but it is also an important function in childhood.

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Zeitlyn

This article examines the ways in which migration from rural homesteads in Sylhet, Bangladesh, to urban flats in London has affected the practices of British Bangladeshi families around gender and childhood. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu on the “Kabyle house,” I describe relations between the spatial arrangement of homes and practices. Analyzing the “Sylheti bari” (rural homestead) and contrasting it with the “ Londoni (British Bangladeshi) flat,” I describe the significance of the way in which ideas of “inside” and “outside” have translated from one setting to another. I will show how the translation of these ideas to the urban landscape in London affects British Bangladeshi practices surrounding headscarf wearing, children’s play, and socializing, as well as attitudes toward school and language.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-105
Author(s):  
I.A. Kotliar ◽  
M.V. Sokolova ◽  
E.G. Sheina

The paper gives an overview of the 14th interdisciplinary conference The Importance of Taking Risks held by the Welsh branch of the International Play Association. The meeting focused on various aspects of supporting children’s play and on the role of risk in child development. The conference had a clear multidis- ciplinary character and brought together specialists from a variety of fields: psychologists, teachers, social workers, experts in risk assessment, and health care professionals. The paper outlines how risk is understood in modern western theory and practice and distinguishes between risk and danger. A child must be taught to assess situations as safe or dangerous. However, modern developmental environment tends to reduce the possibility of risks for the child, which deprives him/her of the natural means of learning about the world and reduces creativity and independence and holds back the child’s self-regulation, prolonging compelled dependence and making children more infantile. The conference also involved discussions concerning tech- niques for risk assessment and a number of prevention programmes and practices. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities (project No 15-06-10627 “Psychological and pedagogical analysis of children’s play environment of the modern city”).


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 623-632
Author(s):  
Doug Walker ◽  
E. Deanne Brocato ◽  
Les Carlson ◽  
Russell N. Laczniak

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the role of co-playing as a moderator of the relation between parents’ and children’s play of violent video games. Design/methodology/approach The study uses dyadic parent/child survey data to estimate the conditional effects in the model, both direct and indirect. Findings The positive effect of parents’ violent video game play of children’s playing behaviors is attenuated by parent/child co-playing. Parents’ knowledge of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings leads to higher levels of co-playing, thereby indirectly attenuating violent video game play in children as driven by parents’ play. Research limitations/implications The paper extends the literature on consumer socialization and the impact of co-playing and identifies an antecedent for co-playing in this context. Practical implications The paper reveals that knowledge of the self-regulatory ESRB rules plays a valuable (indirect) role in mitigating violent video game play by children through an increase in co-playing, which attenuates the positive effect of parents’ play on children’s play. Originality/value The study incorporates data from both parents and children to investigate the relationship between parents and children’s violent video game play while empirically investigating the uncertainty in the literature concerning the moderating impact of co-playing.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Kelty

In this interview, we discuss what open access can teach us about the state of the university, as well as practices in scholarly publishing. In particular the focus is on issues of labor and precarity, the question of how open access enables or blocks other innovations in scholarship, the way open access might be changing practices of scholarship, and the role of technology and automation in the creation, evaluation, and circulation of scholarly work.


Slavic Review ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 766-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Rann

This article examines Vladimir Maiakovskii's frequent references to statues and monuments in his poetry in relation to traditions of iconoclasm in Russian culture in order not only to shed light on the poet's attitude toward the role of the past in the creation of a new culture but also to investigate the way in which the destruction, relocation, and transformation of monuments, both in the urban landscape and in art, reflects political change in Russia. James Rann demonstrates that, while Maiakovskii often invoked a binary iconoclastic discourse in which creation necessitates destruction, his poetry also articulated a more nuanced vision of cultural change through the symbol of the moving monument: the statue is preserved but also transformed and liberated. Finally, an analysis of “Vo ves' golos” shows how Maiakovskii's myth of the statue helped him articulate his relationship to Soviet power and to his own poetic legacy.


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