the play behaviours of 4- vs 5-year-olds. The results revealed that middle- class 4-year-olds engaged in significantly less parallel and functional play,.
BRIEF REPORT The social and cognitive value of preschool toys and activities KENNETH H. RUBIN University of Waterloo
In a series of earlier studies, the author and his colleagues (Rubin, Maioni, & Hornung, 1976; Rubin, 1977) have attempted to document the social and cognitive play preferences of young children. Briefly, these studies have considered the social (Parten, 1933) and the cognitive (Smilansky, 1968) play preferences of middle- and lower-class preschoolers as well as the play behaviours of 4- vs 5-year-olds. The results revealed that middleclass 4-year-olds engaged in significantly less parallel and functional play, and in significantly more associative, cooperative, and constructive play than did their lower-class age-mates. Moreover, 5-year-olds engaged in more group (associative and cooperative) and dramatic play and in less solitary and functional play than did 4-year-olds. These reports provided a starting point for the collection of normative free play data in early childhood. However, it is possible that the results of future studies may vary from those of the aforementioned investigations. One reason for play preference variation from school to school may be that the materials and activities available to children differ from one setting to the next. Moreover, the toys and activities in a school may dictate the forms of social and cognitive play found therein. Support for such a notion stems from the early work of Parten (1933) who found "great differences in the social value of each toy" (p. 146). For example, Parten found house equipment to elicit the most associative and cooperative play in preschoolers. While the Parten study cited the relevance of toys and activities to social interaction, the present writer believes that knowledge of their cognitive value is at least as important for those who study the play of young children. The purpose of this study was to examine the 10 most preferred free play activities in a preschool setting. Descriptive data concerning both the social and the cognitive play values of the toys and activities were collected. Moreover, sex differences in the use of particular materials were denoted. I would like to thank Terry Maioni and Margaret Hornung for their aid in the collection of the data. Thanks also go to Becky Hansen for coding the data. Requests for reprints should be sent to Kenneth H. Rubin, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. CANAD. J. BEHAV. SCI./REV. CANAD. SCI. COMP., 9(4),
1977
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METHOD
Subjects The subjects were 24 male and 18 female children enrolled in the University of Waterloo laboratory preschool. Half of the children attended the preschool in the morning, while half attended in the afternoon. The mean age of the preschoolers was 3.87years (SD = .34). Procedure Each child was observed during the free play hour for one minute per day on 30 consecutive school days. The data were collected by two trained observers from behind a one-way mirror. Each subject's behavior was classified on a checklist such that the duration of both the cognitive and social play categories could be scored easily. Two types of play were of concern; (a) cognitive play, i.e., functional, constructive, and dramatic play and games with rules as defined by Smilansky (1968); and (b) social play, i.e., solitary, parallel, associative, and cooperative play as defined by Parten (1933). As in Rubin et al. (1976), behaviors were recorded such that the form of cognitive play within each social play category was denoted. In addition to noting the duration of each play form (e.g., solitary-constructive; parallel-dramatic) as it occurred, the observer also recorded the activities the child engaged in. A frequency count of each activity was then taken and the 10 most preferred activities were calculated. It is noteworthy that games with rules did not occur during the 10 most frequently observed activities. To compute interjudge reliability, 20 one-minute observations of a child's play were simultaneously recorded by the observers. There was 95.0% agreement between the judges for the frequency of activities observed.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The 10 most frequently occurring activities were cutting and pasting (/ = 198); painting and crayoning (/ = 148); playdough (/ = 128); houseplay, store, doctor, fireman (/ = 106); vehicles (f — 102); sand and water (/ = 97); blocks (/ = 69); science materials (f = 53); books (/ = 46); and puzzles (/ = 37). A series of t-tests revealed that females were significantly more likely than males to engage in cutting and pasting, *(40) = 3.09; p < .01; and painting, *(40) = 2.48, p < .02. Males were more likely to play with vehicles, £(40) = 3.25, p < .01, and blocks, £(40) = 3.22, p < .01. A trend in favor of females was also noted for puzzle play, *(40) = 1.71, p < .10. The data corroborate earlier findings that females engage in more art work and in less block and vehicle play than males (e.g. Parten, 1933), thus indicating a lack of change in toy preference across sexes in over 40 years. The percentage of time children played in an activity in a particular social or cognitive manner was then calculated. The Parten (1933) categories of solitary and parallel play were combined (non-social) as were
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the categories of associative and cooperative play (social). Most noteworthy was the finding that non-social play was more likely to occur than social play during painting and crayoning (non-social = 82.64% of the time), playdough (64.34%), sand and water (78.79%), and puzzle (80.95%) activities. Knowledge of the value of an activity remains incomplete until the cognitive play levels are considered simultaneously with the preferred social modality of play. For example, activities engaged in, in a non-social functional fashion are less complex and less mature than those used in a non-social-constructive manner. Functional play was most likely to occur during playdough (75.19%) and sand and water (91%) activities. On the other hand, constructive play was more likely to occur during painting and crayoning (78.08%) and puzzle (83.72%) activities. The practical lesson to be learned from these data is that there are some preschool activities which, when there is little teacher intervention, may limit the range of children's play behaviors. The most social interaction occurred during houseplay (social play = 53.85%), vehicle play (50%), and reading activities (62.75%). The reason for such a high frequency of social behavior dining reading stems from the fact that the teachers in this particular school encouraged child conversation concerning the reading material being presented. As a result, a potentially non-social activity became, with teacher intervention, a medium for social play. Taking the social and cognitive categories together, house and vehicle play were representative of the highest social and cognitive levels combined. Dramatic play occurred 74.78% of the time for houseplay and 31.43% of the time for vehicle play. Reading was a social, but constructive ( 86% of the time) activity. In conclusion, the present study may provide some welcome hints for those early childhood education administrators and teachers who wish to know the social and cognitive advantages and limitations of particular preschool activities. Moreover, psychologists who investigate the play behaviours of children should be well aware of the importance of the activities and materials made available to the children. RESUME
Observation de 42 enfants d'age prescolaire (dont 24 garcons et 18 fijles) pendant 30 jours consecutifs d'ecole. En analysant les dix activites les plus frequemment observees, on trouve que les filles s'adonnent plus souvent que les garcons a des activites de decoupage, de collage et de peinture et moins qu'eux a des jeux de blocs et de vehicules. Les activites les plus favorables a l'interaction sociale (jeux associatifs et cooperatifs) sont les jeux de famille, les jeux de vehicules et les activites de lecture. C'est dans les *An extended version of the results is available from the author.
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activites de peinture, de modelage, de bac de sable et d'eau et de casse-tete que l'interaction sociale est la moindre. De plus, le modelage ainsi que le bac de sable et d'eau favorisent le plus de caractere fonctionnel (sensorimoteur) du jeu; les casse-tete, la peinture et le crayonnage encouragent le plus le caractere constructif du jeu; enfin, ce sont surtout les jeux de famille et de vehicules qui declenchent l'aspect dramatique du jeu. REFERENCES
Parten, M.B. Social play among preschool children. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1933, 28,136-147. Rubin, K.H., Maioni, T.L., & Hornung, M. Free play behaviors in middle- and lowerclass preschoolers: Parten and Piaget revisited. Child Development, 1976, 47, 414-419. Rubin, K.H. The play behaviors of young children. Young Children, 1977, 32, 16-24. Smilansky, S. The effects of sociodramatic play on disadvantaged children: Preschool children. New York: Wiley, 1968. First received 12 November 1976
