Worked from home today, got lots of reading done on culture, play and shared meaning.
Notes on Collaborative pretend play: From theory to therapy by Susan Hendler Lederer (Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 2002 pp.233-255)
Frameworks for collaborative pretend play in young children
1. Shared script knowledge (references Schank and Abelson, 1977)
"A script is the underlying cognitive framework for an experience…"
Transformations between different scripts or agendas can be accomplished through metacommunication (Bateson, 1972)
2. Metacommunication
Metacommunication sets the 'frame' for interpretation (and thence communication)
A form of ongoing regulation of social interactions (specifically play transactions)
Check Giffin (1984) - quite old
Giffin - expressive (defining) metacomms ; and adaptive (refining/negotiating) metacomms.
Examples of metacommunication: Setting the stage for a game of doctors
Theatre metaphor - metacomms can be spoken in the voice of an off-stage director (a) or in the voice of an on-stage actor-director (b).
(a) "Let's pretend I'm the patient"
(b) "Oh doctor I'm feeling sick."
3. Rules knowledge
What are the rules? Giffin (1984):
a) Players must pretend
b) Players must collaborate * Surely "collude" would be a better verb ;-) *
- incorporate others' transformations or negotiate/propose an alternative; but not object.
Metacommunications must adhere to the rules
Relationship to language intervention
Pretend play skills linked to language and literacy development, cognitive skills such as divergent thinking (what it is?) and social skills
development of pretend play from solitary to collaborative
Solitary pretend play begins at age 1
Piaget : decentration → decontextualisation → integration
Becomes increasingly complex 30 months → 5 years
Analysis of metacommunication, script and rule observance in play can be used as a developmental diagnostic marker when assessing children's language and social development.
Example in paper.
NOTE TO SELF:
Need to read Hughes on Evolutionary Playwork and Bateson's Ecology of Mind book.
Try some Roger Schank?
FURTHER RESEARCH IDEAS
shared culture and meanings
labelling and naming
attitudes towards play, particularly the concept of free play.
research into the psychology and politics (Guardian, Ecologist) of free play rather than … the lower politics of playwork and funding etc. However attitudes towards playwork are important in both (sorry for the dualism, maybe it's a spectrum not a division.)
ip: 193.61.84.99 summary: Worked from home today, got lots of reading done on culture, play and shared meaning. Notes on . . . diff-major:Changed: 20c20
< - incorporate others' transformations or negotiate/propose an alternative; but not object.
to
> - incorporate others' transformations or negotiate/propose an alternative; but not object.
Changed: 20c20
< - incorporate others' transformations or negotiate/propose an alternative; but not object.
to
> - incorporate others' transformations or negotiate/propose an alternative; but not object.