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Playing with Others

Learning to play with others is a complex skill that develops over time. Playing with others requires a child to take turns, so children learn cooperation and negotiation. Through play, a child can practice taking multiple points of view.  A child may believe that everyone sees the world the same way he does, but by acting out a role or pretending to be somebody else, he begins to understand that other people may view the world differently.

A child goes through four stages of playing together as he learns to play with others.

• Solitary Play — when a child plays by himself
• Parallel Play — a child plays side by side with other children and uses the same materials, but the children do not interact work together or share
• Associative Play — children share toys and attempt to work together
• Cooperative Play — children act out complementary roles in a shared scenario; they divide up the roles, decide who will do what and truly work together