Play is not an activity without purpose. One of the defining component of Vygotsky’s theory of development is the importance of play, particularly for preschool-aged children for whom Vygotsky argues, it is the highest level of development. Play provides children with a safe environment where they can act out a reality and in doing so, increase their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). There are three main components that he explores about play:
- Play as a leading source in development.
- The development of play itself and its significance.
- Internal transformations to a child’s development can be shown through play.
For young children, their needs are almost always immediate. For example, a preschool child would not think of something that they need several days into the future. This need may not always be fulfilled. When this happens, the child can throw a tantrum, forget about their need, or engage in play where they imagine an alternate reality in which they can fulfill their own need.
While play is a wish-fulfillment through imagination, it is not always so clear what the need is. The wish fulfillment is of general concepts expressed spontaneously through play. Although a child may not understand why they are engaging in play, or even be aware that they are engaging in play, Vygotsky advises on the need as an observer to understand a child’s needs, inclinations, incentives, and motives to act in order to advance from one developmental stage to the next. While Vygotsky does not have firmly-defined stages as Piaget does, he does indicate that each stage of development, however fluid, is advanced through abrupt changes in the child’s motives and incentives to play. A toddler’s interest will no longer be the same as when he was an infant. This maturing of needs is a dominant factor in play and is precisely what increases a child’s ZPD.
However, play is not just pleasure for children, it can also teach them to suppress their immediate needs. This contradicting logic is due to the fact that while play is pleasurable, rules are established in play by children themselves. By adhering to these rules, children will receive maximum pleasure from the play even if this does not result in immediate gratification. For example, a child playing freeze tag will stand immobile/”frozen” when tagged even though their immediate wish may be to run around. Through following the rules, children learn to be patient and understand that there may be a bigger reward to not having their need immediately fulfilled and a sense of satisfaction at having follow the rules.
“Play continually creates demands on the child to act against immediate impulse.”
Therefore, in play, children learn to follow rules because when the imaginary situation of play is removed, the rules, which the children learnt to follow, remains. The child would have learnt to behave in a situation as its rules dictate.
“At the end of development rules emerge, and the more rigid they are, the greater the demands on the child’s application, the greater the regulation of the child’s activity, the more tense and acute play becomes. Simply running around without purpose or rules of play is a dull game that does not appeal to children.”
Play is a safe venue for the child to learn. Play is different than any other situation because it is imagined. Imagination is when the realities of object and meaning can be separated such as when a child pretends a stick is a horse to ride upon.
For Vygotsky, imagination is a unique human ability as we are able to see the world with sense and meaning rather than just colour and shapes. He argues that this ability to imagine is not yet developed in children under three, damaged in people with certain type of mental and/or speech disorders, and non-existent in animals. For example, when a child under three is ask to repeat that “Tanya is standing” while pointing to Tanya who is sitting in reality, they will automatically correct their speech to match the reality by saying that “Tanya is sitting”.
Play strengthens imagination so that as an adolescent or adult, when play is no longer acted out, imagination still occurs in the mind. In effect, play itself is a stage of development both mentally and linguistically. It is an activity of connecting and disconnect meanings, behaviours, and rules from situations and objects.
Watch this video “The Importance of Play” uploaded in 2010 to see how Vygotsky’s theory on the significance of play, written in the early 1900-s, is still relevant today.