Free-Play Behaviors in Preschool and Kindergarten Children

TLDR

This study examines free‑play behaviors in preschool and kindergarten children. The study investigates age differences in social and cognitive play among children. Kindergarteners engaged more in group and dramatic play, whereas preschoolers favored solitary‑functional and parallel‑functional play, revealing distinct free‑play patterns.

Abstract

RUBIN, KENNETH H.; WATSON, KATHRYN S.; and JAMBOR, THOMAS W. Free-Play Behaviors in Preschool and Kindergarten Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 534-536. The present study concerned age differences in the social and cognitive play of children. It was revealed that kindergarten children displayed less unoccupied, onlooker, solitary, and functional activity and more group and4ramatic play than preschoolers. Examination of the combined PartenSmilansky Play Scale revealed preschoolers to engage in significantly more solitary-functional and parallel-functional play and in less parallel-constructive, parallel-dramatic, and group dramatic play than their kindergarten counterparts.