The relationship between play and development can be viewed in three separate ways. These include cognitive functioning, social rules, and social-cultural functioning. Cognitive functioning is identified as one of the critical aspects of play, where the performance of a child is often compared to his or her future performance as an individual.
The fact that the basis of cognitive functioning lies in the different people who associate with the child in his or her young life, means that it encompasses the most basic forms of play. These allow a child to perceive his or her environment positively and identify with the reality in the environment. Social rules can be identified through an evaluation of the academic and interactive aspects of play (Johnson, Christie, and Wardle 134). These are quite valuable in ensuring that a child completes the transition from his or her attachment with the basic environment that the child is used to and interact more with his or her peers and teachers as well as other people in the society that he or she grows up in.
The interaction between children and different adults in their lives, who may not necessarily be their parents or their peers, dictate their development process mentally as well as socially. Social-cultural functioning is identified to dictate the development of children as they grow older towards their teens (Johnson, Christie, and Wardle 141). The development of a child concerning the expectations of the society that he or she lives in is often dictated by his or her perception of the environment and the individuals in the environment. This means that there are distinctive differences between children who grow up in different societies.
These differences are often dictated by the several types of play that they take up as children. The fact that play in most societies is tailored to fit the parents’ conventions and whatever they believe is best for their children, means that the socio-cultural aspects of play contribute heavily to the child’s development (Johnson, Christie and Wardle 142).
The study of play and development is often characterized by a couple of challenges. The differences in cognition between different children have been identified as challenging when studying play in an environment that provides children with options. The fact that each child perceives the environment differently means that there is a whole range of cognitive aspects that one has to work with when studying play (Johnson, Christie and Wardle 187). The fact that play and child development depend heavily on parental guidance especially when the child is young, means that some adult psychological issues have to be considered in the study of play.
There is, however, a reprieve when it comes to the teachers who have to guide the child in his or her later years since they have a specific curriculum and structure that is quite definitive and specific. Several psychological aspects are constantly changing as far as the study of child psychology is concerned. This means that those studying play have to be on the lookout for different theories that present different options on how to maximize the positive results of play in children. The need to understand play even better means that those studying play have to contend with the wide aspects that are associated with the field. Some of these aspects span across sociology and psychology fields.
Works Cited
Johnson, James, Christie James, and Wardle Francis. Play, Development, and Early Education. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. 2005. Print.