Psychology of Play (Vygotsky)

Vygotsky's Views on Play

Play was viewed as a critical vehicle for cognitive development. Play-based activities offered children a world independent of the real world that was driven by authority figures such as parents, teachers, and caretakers. A primary benefit of play is that imaginary situations may be created that permit the child to act out in ways not possible in the real world. The fantastic nature of play allowed otherwise unrealistic goals and desires to be met. In this way, the child may behave in ways beyond his or her age. One may envision a child riding a big-wheel bicycle, all the while pretending to be driving a car.

A second benefit of play is that most play—whether solitary or group play—contains rules that must be followed. Even basic imaginative play scenes adhere to social rules. For example, a child that is pretending to be a professional dancer will adhere to the social rules often prescribed to that profession. The child must dress, speak, and act accordingly. According to Vygotksy, no form of play was without rules. Together, play was viewed as a means to nurture higher-order thinking in children. In more recent years, research has demonstrated that play may enhance memory, cognitive skills, social functioning, language abilities, and reasoning.

According to Vygotsky, children construct the contents of their minds through social interaction. The content of a mind may consist of a variety of mental structures and images that underlie cognitive processes. Three core beliefs guided his theory of cognitive development: (a) activity generates thinking, (b) development requires the use of “dialectic exchanges,” and (c) development is a sociocultural process. In general, environments with rich activities would promote cognitive development. Furthermore, Vygotsky gave emphasis to the importance of language and guidance by superiors (i.e., the zone of proximal development).

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