Have you ever sat and watched children playing, wondering how they can shift from one scenario to another so quickly, and yet somehow keep it all together? From the outside, it can look random or even chaotic, but inside their world, there is an order and meaning that makes perfect sense to them.
Vygotsky theory of play
Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist. If you have watched my videos on Vygotsky’s theory, where I compare Vygotsky to Piaget, or when I unpack Vygotsky’s theory in more depth, you’d probably know that Vygotsky’s social-cultural theory, also called the cultural-historical perspective, values play a lot!
According to Vygotsky, children’s pretend or imaginary play is very important. He described it as a leading activity for development (Vygotsky, 1973, p. 103). Through actions and interactions with others, children become aware of what they could do and could not do on their own. I really like this definition because I have observed my niece involved in very complex play. I have also watched many young children playing throughout my career as an early childhood teacher, as a mum, as an early childhood educator, as a playgroup facilitator and as a storyteller. Sometimes I sit back and watch children as they play. I can see how their scenario changes, but it all happens in a way that, while it might seem messy from the outside, is internally very structured. That is where Vygotsky’s theory comes into play.
The features of pretend play
According to Vygotsky, pretend play has three features.
Number one, children create an imaginary situation. As he says, the child pretends as if this stick is a horse or as if this block is a phone.
Two: they take on this situation and then act out roles. They usually assign these roles to each other. For example, they might say, “I am going to be a policeman, you are going to be someone who is running away”, or “I am going to be a cat and you are going to be a mum at home.”
Three: They follow the rules they have created, and usually these rules come from the social and cultural context of the roles. The imaginary situation allows children to engage in a pretend rather than a real world.
Honestly, my niece really lives there. She loves pretending. She is at that stage. She is eight years old, and the wondrous world of imagination is really mesmerising. I watched her a lot this summer. In this world, in pretend play, an object can be separated from its meaning. Object substitutions are possible, reflecting an important element of cognitive development (Smolucha & Smolucha, 2021).
Children enact roles in play, and they show emotions associated with these roles. For example, if a baby is your role in play, you might cry or crawl after your peers and the “mum” and other people who are involved. Pretend play is a context where children can explore and express a lot of emotions. I have seen this — from fear to reasoning, from frustration to being very happy. This is an important step in emotional regulation.
While children engage in pretend play freely, for more than 20 minutes or even one, two, or three hours, and create their own rules connected to their roles, they are developing, according to Vygotsky. They are learning within their zone of proximal development.
To sum up, I recognise play as an important process. The EYLF states that it is play-based and it is part of our curriculum framework, but quite often, people do not understand that to develop scenarios and roles, children need time. As an early childhood educator and teacher, I advocate for opportunities for children to discover, create, improvise and imagine. This should be supported by intentional actions of educators, which means they must have time and space for it.