tivates the entire process of thought in a human being.The reality that a great deal of a persons thought is formulated during play makes it a subject worth studying. One such study was conducted by Mildred Parten. In her study Parten observe 42 children between the ages of 2 and 4 years old at play which lead her to identify five distinct ways in which children play. In the model, produced as a result of this experiment, children tend to become more social as they age. The child increases their social active by gradually begin to stop playing solitarily. Parten, believes that the move a child makes from playing alone to playing with other, called associative play, is done by a phenomenon, known as parallel play, in which children begin to parallel their behavior after one-another. According to Parten, as children spent more and more time at play during the associative stage of play they slowly begin to structure their actions around rules and this is identified as cooperative play. Imagination remains prevalent throughout the various types of play because the amount of mental activity increases at each stage of a childs social development. Partens final stage of cooperative play wouldnt be possible if the children didnt agree upon the parameters to governs their play which requires that they share the same idea or vision, an event the text referred to as, social fantasy play. This constant sharing by a child of the same visions and ideas with other members of their peer group creates more complex social interactions and stronger emotional ties between children which may lead to friendship. Whatever the causes of friendship, play between a child and a member of their peer group benefits the childs social skills. As Bettelheim said, a child begins to master social relations as, they, learn to adjust themselves to other if group play is to continue. A child learns what is needed to form meaningful relationships with others by pl...
