Re: play, rules
Margaret Benson 814-238-5277 (ENZ who-is-at PSUVM.PSU.EDU)
Wed, 14 Feb 96 11:40 EST
Dewey called me to task for using the term " a strict Piagetian
interpetation." Well, I meant that perhaps more in the sense of a
strict expectation -- that is Piaget says kids are in the sensorimotor
stage until 24 months, and these two stages of combinatorial play are
theoritized, and observed, by McCune to happen past the sensorimotor
stage, in the symbolic phase of the stage of preoperations. But my point
was that those age limits are far from fixed in real ife, and the child
that can DO those things, regardless of how young, has acquired mental
representation, and the ability to use symbols.
Incidentally, I did not add that much of what children do at that stage
can also be explained by Vygotsky's ideas of scaffolding and the ZPD. Many
parents explicitly show kids what to do with replica toys. There are one
or two nice articles in the Bretherton book that indicate how parents
scaffold early pretend play with their toddlers.
Margaret