INTRODUCTION 425 DEFINING PLAY 426 THEORIES OF PLAY 428 Piaget 428 Vygotsky 429 VARIETIES OF PLAY AND THEIR DEVELOPMENTAL COURSE 430 Sensorimotor and Object Play 430 Physical or Locomotor Play 430 Rough-and-Tumble Play 431 Exploratory Play 431 Construction Play 432 Symbolic Play 432 Summary 433 CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN PLAY RESEARCH 433 Pretend Play and Theory of Mind 433 Symbolic Understanding 4...

This paper shows the results of the analysis of more than 60 hours of adult-infant (24-36-mounths-old) interaction, concerning presence, characterization and interplay of two varieties of play arising from interactive contexts: Pretend Play and Musical Play. It was observed that, in most of the cases, musical play takes place within contexts of pretend play. That means that infants can fluently...

This paper presents a design case of an interactive zoomorphic play object for open-ended pretend play, based on De Valk’s three stages of play framework. It was designed to invoke pretend play around a sleeping object. Design iterations were tested in a public play environment.

An article by Angeline S. Lillard and others in the January 2013 issue of Psychological Bulletin comprehensively reviewed and criticized the existing body of research on pretend play and children’s development. Nicolopoulou and Ilgaz respond specifically to the article’s critical review of research on play and narrative development, focusing especially on its assessment of research—mostly condu...