To play any role - a mother, a father, a baby, a doctor, a policeman,
Superman, a friend, anything - one has to behave according to the "intrinsic
rules" of this role. In other words, you have to follow certain patterns of
behavior by which being a (mother, father, baby....) is defined. Therefore,
you cannot play a mother if you are not doing things that somehow "define" a
mother (holding a baby, feeding a baby, changing a babay, taking a walk with
a baby, etc). These activities which "define" a role are the "rules". They
are, obviously, in many symbolic plays open, and subject to negotiation, and
most probably are being discovered along as the play progresses. But they
cannot be completely altered. There is a point where altering a rule means a
complete change of a role and creation of something new. However, even in
that case this new role is defined by some activities ("rules") that
distinguish it form other roles.
I focussed here on roles, but the same is true for situations. They are
defined by "scripts" or a sequence of activities that define a situation or
an event: a visit to a doctor, having a "tea party", chasing a thief
(villian), a trip to another planet... The "scripts" are maybe even more
open and evolving than roles, but they are still bound to some "rules". In
other words a situation is defined by some activities and not by other
activities. You can change a lot, but not everything. Some changes lead to a
change in the topic of the play, some other changes may stop the play entirely.
Here is an example from my collection:
I was playing with my 2 1/6 old son, Giga. I suggested that we play a
"father and a daughter" with him being the "father" and me being the
"daughter". He was delighted and assumed a fatherly way of behaving: patting
me on the head, asking me if I wanted something to eat.. I assumed a baby
behavior: babling, sucking my thumb, crawling on the floor... (all these are
"rules" of being a father and the baby). At one moment I started picking my
nose. My son stopped playing and seriously protested:
G: "You can't do that!"
A serious, non-play discussion replaced the play:
A: "Why not?"
G: "Girls don't pick their noses?"
A: "Why do you think they don't?"
G: "I have never seen one..."
A: "Do you think that if you didn't see one, then they don't do it?"
G: "Yes."
A: "Everybody picks their noses: boys, girls, adults..."
G: "Then I want to get out of this town!"
A: "Which town?"
G: "The Nosepick Town"
A: "Is that a place where everybody picks their noses?"
G: "Yes"
We did not continue to play this game.
(translated into English by me)
A short analysis:
If the "rules" are broken, the play also breaks. For G. one of the rules was
"Girls don't pick their noses". Breaking this "rule" was enough to break the
play for some serious talk and negotiation of the rules. G. could not accept
a new rule "Everyone picks their noses", and consequently we couldn't
continue to play this game.
Another rule which was unbreakable was the number of "Supermen" in the same
game: i.e. "There is only one Superman" or "Two players cannot play the role
of the Superman at the same time in the same game". (from another example in
my collection)
As you see, the rules are not always explicit. But they become explicit at
critical points when someone tries to break them. A lot of negotiating about
how a play should proceed is, indeed, negotiating the rules.
The importance of this discovery is clear. Just as the rules are not
explicit for an observer (or even a co-player) they often are not explicit
for the player her/him-self. But play gives a child an opportunity to
encounter her/his own understanding of reality and to re-negotiate her/his
views. Making the rules explicit means being able to use them in a
deliberate and controlled way. Furthermore, "making them explicit" often
means creating them for the first time.
Ana
_________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Ana Marjanovic-Shane
151 W. Tulpehocken St. Office of Mental Health and Mental
Retardation
Philadelphia, PA 19144 1101 Market St. 7th Floor
(215) 843-2909 [voice] Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 843-2288 [fax] (215) 685-4767 [v]
(215) 685-5581 [fax]
E-mail: pshane who-is-at andromeda.rutgers.edu
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