Child Observation Paper: The Role of Play in Emotional Development

The three children I observed were 2 girls and 1 boy; I’ll call them Maya, Adam, and Brittany. Maya was the first child I observed. She was about 4 years of age. She was of Mexican descent with long black curly hair worn in a ponytail. She wore a pink shirt, pink pants and socks without shoes. Maya was at the snack table asking the teacher for something but teacher didn’t understand what Maya wanted. The teacher then asks Maya if she wants purple paper and Maya waves her finger back and forth, “No, no, no!” she wants a purple cup. The teacher sets the cup down on the placemat next to her plate on the table. The snack is an English muffin with cream cheese, grapes, and milk. Maya uses a knife to spread cream cheese onto the muffin. She is left-handed. She spreads the cheese like she’s done this plenty of times before, with coordination. Her fingers are sticky after spreading the cream cheese so she skips over to the sink to wash up. She sings while she is washing her hands; “wash hands, wash hands.” She grabs the soap and lathers up and plays with the water going down the drain. There is a mirror on the wall right at eye level and she watches herself. She washes her face and licks her lips still watching herself in the mirror. She washes her face again and spills water all over the floor. She dispenses the paper towel with some difficulty and dries off. This whole process takes a 5 full minutes and she was alone the entire time. She sits down for her snack and pours herself some milk and serves herself some grapes from a large bowl and licks the serving spoon before putting it back into the bowl. There are two other children at the table as well as a teacher. Maya switches places taking her placemat, plate, and cup with her. She sits closer to the boy sitting across the table from her and they play peek-a-boo and laugh at each other underneath the table. She says, “all finished” and takes her plate to the trash and dumps it. She then walks over to the Play-Doh table to see why a girl is crying and takes a seat at the table with a placemat set up with Play-Doh.

Adam is the second child I observed. He is Caucasian, about age 3. He was playing on a rug with train tracks set up all around him. The toy that he had in his hand is a railroad crossing guard. “Whoo! Whoo! He says, making train noises. ‘It’s closed! It’s closed!” He has the crossing guard closed so no train cars can pass. He instantly switches to shooting noises as if he is shooting a cannon using the crossing guard. He stacks 3 train cars on top of each other and shoots them with the “cannon.” There are two other boys playing near him but initially he is playing alone until he decides to aim and shoot at the other two boys using the crossing guard, turned cannon, now a toy gun. Then it turns into a sword but one boys tells him, “no!” and Adam stops using it as a sword.

Another boy takes his car and Adam starts to cry and a teacher intervenes. Adam doesn’t like the result of the intervention and turns his body to play in another area of the track. At this point he gets up and walks outside and runs into the arms of a teacher who is watching kids play outside. She hugs him and talks to him and he is happy again. He runs over to the jungle gym stands on the top of the bench and then sits in a group of 3 boys in a huddle. He leaves the huddle and goes and gets another hug form the teacher, who picks him up because he is sad. She sets him down but holds his hand and they walk inside to use the bathroom.

The third and last observation is of an African-American girl about age 4-5. I call her Brittany. She is wearing a purple striped shirt and purple pants; she is wearing socks but no shoes. Her hair is in a bun and she has the cutest dimples. Brittany is acting like a dog and barking. Her friend is the master and they are going on a walk together. Brittany is on hands and knees and “sits, stay, drop it,” as her master is giving her commands. She has a tiny quilt that she is dragging around in her mouth as she crawls around like a dog. “RUFF! RUFF! BARK! BARK!” Brittany and two other girls are looking at a book. Once again she is a dog and is pretending to eat the book and accidentally rips the book with her mouth. One of the other girls runs to tell on her so Brittany runs and hides under a sleeping bag in the corner. “BARK. BARK.” Brittany comes out to sit on the couch with the teacher who is asking Brittany to be a child right now not a dog. “BARK! BARK!” Brittany is not cooperating. She continues to bark like a dog as the teacher is trying to come up with a solution to fix the book. Brittany’s barks become quieter and sad-like at this point. Brittany leans on her friend on the couch and then confesses, “I did it,” but then is back to barking loudly again. The teacher tells Brittany that even though she is pretending to be a dog, she still needs to take care of the book and asks Brittany to tape the page back together. Brittany gets up and runs outside and hides in a stack of tires. Another teacher encourages Brittany to tape the page. Brittany, with the help of her friend eventually tapes the book back together. The teacher thanks Brittany for taping the book, to which Brittany yells, “I don’t care!”

According to Freud and Erikson, play helps children master anxieties and conflict. (Santrock, 2017) p. 263. I saw this during my observation of Brittany who, while involved in social and constructive play with her friends, she pretended to be a dog. She gets into a conflict after she tears a page out of a book and her friend tattles on her. The teacher comes over to talk to Brittany about the ripped page but Brittany is anxious and is hiding. When Brittany comes out of hiding, she is still acting like a dog during the confrontation. She continues to “bark” like a dog but it is in a more quiet and contrite instead of the loud, bold, playful “BARK,” from earlier. It was interesting to watch. She was sorry and used “play” to protect herself and maybe to diffuse the tension. She finally did admit to tearing the page and after a little more coaxing, she and her friend taped up the torn page. Brittany must have developed a trust with her own parents during the late infancy and toddler stage; this is Erickson’s second stage: autonomy versus shame and doubt. This enabled Brittany to show responsible behavior when she confessed to ripping the page and it also showed initiative rather than guilt, which is Erikson’s thirst stage of development. (Santrock, 2017) p. 21.

During my observation of Adam, I observed pretense/symbolic play. As he played, he pushed the train cars around the track and made “choo choo” noises like one would expect kids to do while playing with trains, but then he makes an explosion noise like a big gun or cannon. He had in his hand, the railroad crossing guard and instead of using it to stop the travel of the trains around the track he was pointing it at the trains and at the other boys playing nearby and pretending to shoot at them. I also observe Adam use the same railroad crossing guard as a sword, but another boy tells him, “NO!” Adam becomes sad and he decides to go outside and walks right into the arms of the teacher who is watching kids play outside. His demeanor immediately changes to a happy boy once again. This reminded me of the Ethological Theory in which Bowlby states “that attachment to a caregiver over the first year of life has important consequences though out the life span.” He also states, “If this attachment is positive and secure, the individual will likely develop positively in childhood and adulthood. If the attachment is negative and insecure, life-span development will likely not be optimal.” (Santrock, 2017) p. 26. Adam’s early experiences with attachment must have developed in a safe and loving environment because he showed a secure attachment relationship with his preschool teacher. He felt safe enough to go to this particular teacher to get comfort from her when he was sad. This secure attachment early on will help him make secure attachments in other relationships throughout his life span.

During my observation of Maya, age 4, I watched an interaction between Maya and a teacher. The teacher asks Maya if she would like the purple paper but Maya does not and waves her finger back and forth and says, “No, no, no!” This behavior is what American psychologist Albert Bandura referred to in his social cognitive theory. Bandura “emphasized that cognitive processes have important links with the environment and behavior.” (Santrock, 2017) p. 25. Examples of this are imitating, mimicking or modeling. Maya observed this behavior probably at home and mimicked the behavior herself. Watching Maya was interesting in that for 5 whole minutes of the observation she spent time by herself at the sink washing her hands and face while looking at herself in the mirror. It reminded me of practice play; she was practicing good hygiene techniques that she might have learned at home and at preschool. I did observe Maya in social play during a game of peek-a-boo while sitting at the snack table. They engaged in reciprocity as they ducked their heads under the table and laughed with each other.

There are many benefits to the different types of play. During sensorimotor play, children can explore using their senses and motor control and derive pleasure from their exploration as they grow from infants into toddlers. They will learn persistence. During practice play, they will use all of the new skills they have learned while they are at the playground, in preschool, and during play dates at their friends’ homes. They will learn language and empathy. They will use pretense/symbolic play and transform themselves into dinosaurs, or fairies, or doctors and astronauts. They will experience social play and learn the rules of the playground, how to take turns, how to follow directions, how to be friendly, how to express themselves and how to solve problems. They will learn cooperation and turn taking. During constructive play their imaginations will grow as they build forts and build block towers and through curiosity, children will become creative and they will learn self-confidence. It takes a lot of energy to be a child and it’s no wonder that both Piaget and Vygotsky both concluded, “play is a child’s work.” (Santrock, 2017) p. 263.

There are three areas of development that impact a child’s ability to engage in play. They are physical development, cognitive development and social/emotional development. Physical development involves the physical body and its growth. Inherited genes, the development of the brain, height and weight gains, exercise and nutrition are examples of physical development. (Santrock, 2017) p. 13. Fine motor skills are the small muscle groups that are used when cutting with scissors, playing board games, playing with building blocks, or playing with Legos or putting a jigsaw puzzle together. They include the hands and wrists, and include finger dexterity and hand and eye coordination. If a child has physical impairment that involves their fine motor skills, like paralysis or maybe a deformity and are missing fingers; the child could feel discouraged from attempting these sorts of play. It is also possible that other children might think the disabled child can’t do this type of play and is not invited to play. Another aspect of physical development is gross motor skills. These include the big muscle groups that help when a child is jumping rope, riding a bike, playing on the jungle gym and kicking a ball. There are some children who are in wheelchairs and are unable to run or kick a ball. Other children may be uncoordinated and have issues with balance. These gross motor impairments could lower the self-confidence of many children who are affected in this way and it may discourage them from participating because they are different and can’t climb on the jungle gym or jump rope like typically developed children.

Cognitive development is changes in and individual’s thought, intelligence, and language. (Santrock, 2017) p. 13. Egocentrism, animism, centration are some examples of the stages children grow through. From all of the “why?’ questions, to learning how to think critically, to problem solving, and morality. A deficit or disability in cognitive development such as dyslexia, Down syndrome, or a brain injury caused by a teratogen during gestation or an accident, can lead to difficulties in cognitive development.

Social/emotional development is the changes in individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions and changes in personality. (Santrock, 2017) p. 13. Just as Maya laughed and smiled as she played peek-a-boo under the table with her friend; Adam, who is learning to understand his emotions, sought the comfort of a trusted teacher, and even Brittany is learning about morality and ethics when she confessed to ripping the page in the book; these are just three of the many more kinds examples of social/emotional development.

The three of these; physical, cognitive, and social/emotional development are all related and intertwine with each another. When one area of development is stunted or delayed, it will affect the other two areas. I think of two ailments in the physical development that would affect both the social/emotional and cognitive development areas. Being blind or being deaf are two physical disabilities that can affect the cognitive development and social/emotional development for the life span of the individual. From the very beginning of their life, they will struggle with learning how to do everything from general hygiene to daily living skills, like making a sandwich and crossing the street. Friendships will be different and possibly fewer. Playtime will be limited in activities. Another example that these three developmental areas are bidirectional could be in social/emotional development of a shy child. A child who is shy will be afraid to raise their hand in the classroom or be afraid to talk with their peers. These two issues will affect their language and learning of academic concepts but also affect communication and learning how to relate to peers. It may also affect their physical development. That’s tridirectional! The shy child will probably not participate in playground games like dodge ball or climb on the jungle gym with friends. This lack of physical activity will affect their cardiovascular system, their muscle strength and bone growth and even affect their mental state, which could lead to depression.

For those of us in the field of Early Childhood Education, the challenge to foster healthy physical, cognitive, and social/emotional development is great. Every child is different and is growing up in a different environment from the next child. Each family has their own set of relationship challenges, health issues, job related hardships, and so many other things that can affect home life. An ECE educator cannot fix the job issues, or the angry abusive parents or absent parents or even the lack of healthy food that many children don’t eat on a day to day basis, but they can help mitigate some of these issues in the preschool program. The basic needs in life are food, water and home. I think any ECE program should look to bring those things to their children it serves. For food, they can have a garden where the kids are involved in planting, cultivating and harvesting. The kids will eat what they grow, help prepare their snacks and they can take home the extras to their families. Being outdoors in nature is a proven mental boost and being in a garden will provide food, education, a mental boost and fun. For water, that’s easy. They can provide healthy drinking water (and even milk for those who are lower SES) to the children rather than sugary sodas and juices. Water is so important for bodily functions and drinking water will not add on calories and cavities like soda and juice will. For the home, they can provide a safe place for the children. Children need a safe and clean environment with books, toys, and art materials to foster imagination and creativity. I think the last item that would make for a great ECE program feel like home, is a pet. It would teach the children responsibility in caring for the pet, it would teach them how to share, and how to be kind. Whether it’s a friendly cat or a mouse or a goldfish; a pet makes for a happy home away from home.