However, the Russian collectivist culture has an entirely different concept towards play. Play is “serious work” to the Russian children in the collectivist upbringing of children in Russia. From the age of one, children are put under a regime-style of upbringing and training. Collective play is emphasised; most play activities involve sharing and cooperation. Role-playing in real-life situations as in taking care of baby, to train them to take on communal responsibilities such as serving at table, cleaning up, clearing snow from the driveway, and caring for animals. Thus, children are learning something worthwhile in the name of play (Bronfenbrenner, 1974, pp. 17-23). It may appear that these children are learning to be responsible and altruistic but they are also being trained in a very competitive environment with public evaluation and criticism of their performance.
Parental socio-economic status influences their concept of play towards child development. Parents who are college-educated tend to favour play activities such as make-believe play, imaginative play as they share the same belief as teachers that play fosters self-discovery and social development. However, parents who are less educated are more concerned about academic activities and school-related skills. They view expressive activities such as singing and pretend play as not beneficial to the academic development of the children (Morelock, Brown, & Morrissey, 2003, pp. 41). Nonetheless, Hughes (1999, pp. 64) points out that irrespective of the socio-economic status, a responsive mother who is sensitive to the wants of her child would engage her child in social games and play.
Academic skills are also very much emphasised in Singapore’s educational policy as our government values meritocracy. Achieving academic excellence is top priority for all school children in Singapore. Hence, many parents are still not in favour of a play-centred curriculum, as they fear this will not help their children to achieve academic success. With ranking of schools’ performance and learning outcomes; teachers and parents are compelled to neglect play in favour of more “school-like” activities. Similar to the American context as mentioned earlier, Singaporean parents send their children to many enrichment activities to help them to be outstanding in academic studies as well as extra-curricular activities such as music and golf lessons. As a result, children are much deprived of free play. Many children have not acquired the art of making friends and even the ability to make friendly contacts (Tan et al, 1997)
The foregoing examples demonstrate that parental perspectives, socio-economic status, cultural factors, and educational policies are some issues that could negate the value and importance of play to children’s development and be viewed as having no “real educational experiences” (Leong & Bodrova, 2003, pp. 5). On the contrary, Hughes (1999, p. 109) advises that play is very often the context in which the needs of a growing child are developed and enhanced. It is vital to the development of all facets of the young child – personal awareness, emotional well-being, socialisation, communication, cognition, and perceptual motor skills (Hughes, 1999, p. 62-64, 68-69, 81-109 – 111).
There are numerous play processes that help develop these many facets in the young child. Infant games such as peek-a-boo, making funny faces in front of a mirror, and water play in bathtub promote adult-child relationship. Playing also encourages and strengthens awareness of self and others; thus, it facilitates the development of a child’s image of himself and others. Indeed, they are not meaningless play especially when adults play with children, the latter will find adults more fun to be with; it is easier to form attachment that leads to securely attached children. Secure attachment is vital to the growing child: it gives him trust and confidence in his environment; it enables him to venture, explore, and learn about his surroundings (Hughes, 1999, p. 196-197, Gonzalez-Mena & Eyer, 2001, p. 77-79).
Therefore, open-ended materials such as blocks enable the child to exercise spatial awareness concepts, perceptual skills, eye-hand coordination as well as pretend play and creative imagination (Van Hoorn & Nourot, p.255-256). Children use mathematical skills and science concepts and ideas to further expand their creativity in their construction with blocks; they will add details and complex structures to their block play (Isenberg & Jalongo, 1997, pp. 275-277). Children make use of their bodies and motor skills to move and stack up blocks that is beneficial to their physical development and strategic planning.
Much creativity, divergent thinking, and cognitive skills are developed as children engage in pretend play. Thus, children should not be viewed as “just playing”. Their minds and thoughts are actively involved as they prepare their own scripts and collaborate to direct their play. They plan, negotiate roles and actions, agree and remind each other about the rules they have made. During pretend play, children get to practise their social skills. For instance, when children are unable to agree to play hospital or grocery store, they compromise by combining both. Hence, children play and learn to problem solve (Leong et al, Mar 2003, Rogers et al, 1998).
In addition to blocks, clay, sand, water, drama, song, dance, music, and rhythm instruments offer many opportunities for social interaction and social integration. Children socialise freely, talk to one another, share, cooperate, and collaborate during the process of play (Hughes, 1999, p. 198-204). As they learn to work together, they take turns, accommodate one another’s ideas and solutions, share responsibilities and manage their play materials (Rogers et al, 1998, pp. 64-66, Blakley et al, 1993, pp. 35-37). During these processes of working together, children learn how to use and control their emotions and actions – this is enhancing their socio-emotional development.
Other forms of play such as dramatic play, and story enactment, allow children to use language extensively. They plan the scenario, use words, facial expressions, and intonations to express their feelings to fit in with their assumed characters and roles. Through play, they develop vocabulary, grammar, and language use. Not only do these settings encourage and stimulate children to further their literacy and language learning, but they develop awareness, empathy, awareness and sensitivity to diverse cultures of their classmates and in the world beyond the classroom (Van Hoorn et al, 2003, pp.211-220).
As children grow older and reach school years, the emergence of self-concept and the need to “show off” their talents or skills is reflected in play (Hughes, 1999, pp. 123). Being able to swing from one rung to the next at the “monkey bar” or to climb up a pole at the playground, a child is playing but he is also demonstrating to himself and others his ability. In doing so, he is trying to meet his need for industry, find his self-worth, and gain peer acceptance. When children reach their teens, play again takes a different form such as going to a movie with friends, listening to music, or watching television. These are very important socialising themes for older children to meet their needs for a sense of personal identity, sense of belonging, communication, and personality development (Hughes, pp. 120-123).
In this sense, Bloch and Pellegrini (1989, pp. 16-21) point out that it is vital that children must learn to be competent at the ”basic skills of the human community, in language, body control, morality, reasoning, and interpersonal relations. As such, they believe that play and developing competence go together, and growing up is a time of socialising and becoming adept at socially relevant skills and beliefs. Unless children become competent in the basic social skills, they could become a problem for their family, for their society, and for themselves. In view of this, research studies by McHale, Crouter and Tucker recommend that free-time activities in middle childhood such as sports, and hobbies are essential and important to children’s psychosocial development as well as cognitive and motivational development. Nonetheless, they caution that parents and adults need to supervise free-time activities that are constructive in development; otherwise children may indulge freely in activities that may be harmful to them.
Play is indeed the cornerstone upon which the pillars of physical, socio-emotional, cognitive, creative, and language development are built on. Parents and other significant adults need to be informed and understand that play in the lives of children are very essential and purposeful in enriching their repertoire of experiences and development. Play is not an end to itself; they help children to add on to their experiences and construct new knowledge to enhance their cognitive, social, emotional, and communication skills. Adults need to be supportive, involved, and be open to the various forms of play to help children to desire to learn and develop with enthusiasm and eagerness instead of drudging learning through stacks of worksheets.
