Running Head: PLAY PATTERNS IN TODDLERS IN SOCIAL EMOTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
Analyzing Play Patterns in Young Toddlers as seen in Social Emotional Development
Leslie Wells
Texas State University
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Analyzing Play Patterns in Young Toddlers as seen in Social Emotional Development
Children achieve many developmental milestones between the ages of 1 and 2 (Berk &
Meyers, 2015; Deynoot-Schaub & Riksen-Walraven, 2006; Legendre & Munchenbach, 2011;
Williams, Ontai, & Mastergeorge, 2007). During this period of growth children begin to
increase self-awareness and improve upon their communication and understanding skills. They
begin to understand that their peers have thoughts and feelings, and improve upon their peer
interaction skills (Berk & Meyers, 2015). Unlike family members, child peers interact with each
other on an equal level by keeping conversations and interactions going, cooperating, and setting
goals in play. Peers provide children with social and learning opportunities that they cannot get
anywhere else (Berk and Meyers, 2015; Deynoot-Schaub & Riksen-Walraven, 2006; Williams,
Ontai, & Mastergeorge, 2007). This is why exposing young children to childcare is so important.
Although they may develop social and emotional skills within their home, a child care center
provides something that the home cannot- peer interaction.
Theoretical Rationale
One of the first scientists to study peer sociability among 2- to- 5 year-olds was Mildred
Parten (Berk and Meyers, 2015). She found that as a child ages, they dramatically increase their
joint and interactive play, and eventually created a three step process for social development
(Berk and Meyers, 2015). According to Parten (1932) children first start out with nonsocial
activity. This type of activity includes solitary play and unoccupied, observatory behavior. Next
comes parallel play, which involves limited social participation in which children play near each
other with similar materials however do not influence each other’s behavior. When children
begin to comment to one another and exchange toys while still engaging in separate activities
they are engaging in associative play. Lastly, when children engage in cooperative play they are
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interacting with each other while having a common goal in mind (as cited in Berk & Meyers,
2015). Despite the fact that these types of play emerge in this particular order, they do not
replace one another. In fact, during early childhood they tend to co-exist (Berk & Meyers,
2015).
The population studied during this survey included children ages 1.6 to 2 years old.
Parten’s (1932) stages of social development focused on children aged 2 to 5 years old.
Although the children included in the current sample are almost within that age range, they are
lacking the communication skills that most children develop during the 2 to 5 year age-period
(Berk & Meyers, 2015). For example, whenever the children would see a plane in the sky, they
would yell, “plane” or “air pane.” However, they were not able to engage in basic conversation
with each other during their social interactions. According to Clark and McDowel (2006), the
milestones that children reach between the age of 2 and 3 include stacking blocks, turning the
pages of a book, playing briefly with other children, watching other children play, not wanting to
share, enjoyment from playing with adults, showing aggression, beginning to play house,
answering simple questions, imitating others’ behavior, identifying objects in pictures, and
combining two or three words. Due the fact that children between the ages of 1 and 2 have not
fully developed the necessary communication skills for cooperative and associative play in the
sense that Parten (1932) envisioned play patterns were analyzed using revised forms of play. For
this purpose the types of play that were measured in this study included solitary play, parallel
play, and cooperative play (Clark & McDowel, 2006). Children under 18 months of age mostly
play alone- solitary play (Clark & McDowel, 2006). Once the reach the 18 month mark children
begin to engage in parallel play. In parallel play they begin to play near each other however do
not actually interact with each other (Clark and McDowel). Once children begin to actually play
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with each other, they are participating in cooperative play. Cooperative play may include
activities such as ring around the rosie and building blocks, and generally starts around age three.
In order to measure the amount of each type of play that a child was engaged in, the instructions
for the instrument require the observer to fill out the chart asking which type of play was being
engaged in by the child every two minutes. Questions 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 were also asked in order
to measure solitary, parallel, and cooperative play Clark & McDowel, 2006).
Several researchers have found a connection between aggressive behaviors during
preschool years and poor social competence (Deynoot-Schaub & Riksen-Walraven, 2006;
Williams, Ontai, & Mastergeorge, 2007). However others see aggressive behavior as a way for
young children to learn how to exercise their impulses in a safe environment. They are able to
express their negative emotions appropriately through physical play. This is where young
children learn how to control their aggressive behaviors in order to develop adaptive social
behaviors (Williams, Ontai, & Mastergeorge, 2007). In order to measure aggression, the
instrument for this study included questions 4) Did the child ever refuse a peers’ attempts to
play? and 5) Did the child display any aggression towards peers?
The last behavior that was measured was the effect that caregivers had on their peer
interactions. Results have shown that whenever caregivers are in close proximity to their young
charges, the young children tend to socially orient themselves towards the caregivers rather than
their peers (Legendre & Munchenbach, 2011). This was measured in question 3) Who did the
child spend most of their time with?
Integrated Analysis
The social development of the three children that were observed for this study varied
among each child. Child A seemed to be extremely social and enjoyed interaction with her peers.
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She initiated interaction with her peers frequently. She also seemed to enjoy the attention that she
received from peers and adults during said interactions. Child B was outgoing at times, yet kept
to herself at other times. She rarely initiated peer interaction. She also reacted negatively
whenever someone tried to interact with her first. Child C seemed to enjoy solitary play the most
out of the three children that were observed. He spent the majority of his time observing others
or engaging in solitary play. All three children seemed to love interacting with their caretakers.
Whenever they noticed a peer receiving positive attention from a caretaker, they immediately
imitated said peer’s actions in order to receive attention for the caretaker/adult in the room. This
can be seen when Child A tries to get the attention of Child X7’s father during his lunchtime
visit. Each child showed some time of aggression during observation, however they seemed to
recover within seconds of the negative interaction.
Assessment of Abilities
Each child seemed to show promise in their abilities for the area of development. Child A
seemed to be meeting most of the milestones discussed in Clark and McDowel’s (2006)
Developmental Milestones: Age 2 chart. She is playing briefly with other children, watching
other children play, enjoys playing with adults, does not want to share, can be negative and
stubborn, and does best with a set routine. She seems very outgoing and happy when interacting
with peers and adults. Child B also displays the same milestones as Child A, however she seems
to be shyer when it comes to engaging others in play, especially her peers. She really enjoys
positive interaction with her caretakers. Child C seems to enjoy solitary play the most. He
played briefly with others, watched other children a lot, enjoyed playing with adults, and did not
like to share. Child C is 4 months younger than Child B and 2 months younger than Child A,
therefore he may be slightly behind the other two in his social development.
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Suggestions
Although each child seems to be thriving in their social development, there are some
suggestions that should be taken into account by their caretakers in order to ensure optimal social
development. All three children seem to be developing good peer interaction skills, however due
to their over enjoyment of caretaker interaction the CDC caretakers must take into account that
their physical presence may have a negative impact on their pupils’ peer interactions (Legendre
& Munchenbach, 2011). Specifically for Child A, caretakers should be aware of their proximity
to her while she is engaging in free, unrestricted play in order to optimize her peer to peer
interaction (Legendre & Munchenbach). Child B should be encouraged by caretakers to initiate
interaction with peers in order to reduce her aggressive reaction from others initiating interaction
(Deynoot-Schaub & Riksen-Walraven, 2006; Williams, Ontai, & Mastergeorge, 2007). Lastly
for Child C, caretakers should focus on increasing peer to peer interaction by utilizing methods
like scaffolding to promote and encourage positive peer to peer interaction ((Deynoot-Schaub &
Riksen-Walraven, 2006; Williams, Ontai, & Mastergeorge, 2007).
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Resources
Berk, L. E., & Myers, A. B. (Eds.). (2015). Infants, children, and adolescents (8th ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson.
Clark, P., & McDowel, G. (2006). The developing child observation guidebook. (pp. 100-103).
Woodland Hills, CA: McGraw-Hill.
Deynoot-Schaub, M. G., & Riksen-Walraven, J. M. (2006). Peer interaction in child care centres
at 15 and 23 months: Stability and links with children’s socio-emotional adjustment. Infant
Behavior & Development, 29, 276-288.
Legendre, A., & Munchenbach, D. (2011). Two-to-three-year-old children’s interactions with
peers in child-care centres: Effects of spatial distance to caregivers. Infant Behavior &
Development, 34, 111-125.
Williams, S. T., Ontai, L. L., & Mastergeorge, A. M. (2007). Reformulating infant and toddler
social competence with peers. Infant Behavior & Development, 30, 353-365.