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Contributions and
Benefits of Peer Play
The
child shall have full opportunity for play and reaction, which should be
directed to the same purpose as education; society and public authorities shall
endeavor to promote the employment of this right.
United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, Principle 7 (adopted 1959)
Play’s Contribution to Children’s
Development
(P.J. Wolfberg)
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Developmental Domain
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Developmental Acquisitions
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Cognition
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Knowledge
of functional, spatial, causal, categorical relationships; abstract though,
executive functioning skill, problem solving, mental planning, flexible and
divergent thinking, association, and logical memory
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Social Competence
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Verbal
and nonverbal communication, perspective-taking, social awareness;
exploration of social roles and issues of intimacy, trust, negotiation and
compromise to form friendships
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Language
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New
vocabulary; forms and functions of language; complex language structures;
rules of conversation; metalinguistic awareness
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Literacy
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Interest
in stories, knowledge of story structure and story comprehension; narrative
competence; understanding of fantasy in books; use of symbols to represent
the world
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Emotional
Expression
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Regulation
of affect and emotion; expression of thoughts and feelings; working through
emotional conflicts
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Creative-Artistic
Expression
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Inventiveness,
imagination, symbolic representation; enlarged collection of novel ideas and
associations
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Sensory-Motor
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Fine
and gross motor skills; body awareness; sensory regulation
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Benefits of the Integrated Peer Play
Groups Model (P.J. Wolfberg)
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Novice
Players
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Expert
Players
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- More
frequent and sustained social interaction and play with peers—decreased
isolate play
- Advances in
representational play, developmentally and age appropriate
play—decreased stereotyped play
- Advances in
symbolic activity (writing and drawing)
- Improved
social-communication skills
- Improved
language skills in verbal children
- More diverse
range of play interests
- Higher
degree of spontaneous social engagement (initiation and responsiveness)
with peers
- Increased
affect—emotional expression
- Sheer
enjoyment—“the fun factor”
- Formation of
reciprocal relationships—friendships with peers
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- Greater
awareness, tolerance and acceptance of individual differences
- Greater
empathy, compassion and patience for others
- Increased
self-esteem, confidence, sense of pride in accomplishments
- Increased
sense of responsibility to cooperate and include others
- Ability to
adapt to children’s different play interests and ways of relating and
communicating
- Sheer
enjoyment—“the fun factor”
- Formation of
reciprocal relationships—friendships with atypical peers
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Please contact The Learning
Spectrum for more information.
Call 844-5433 or visit our
contact page
with any questions.
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