Child Life Certification 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The categorization of social participation based on children's play behavior was first proposed by Parten. Parten identified different types of play and how they reflect children’s social interactions, creating categories such as parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play. This framework helps in understanding the developmental progression in children's social skills and their ability to engage with peers. Her work emphasizes the importance of social context in play, illustrating how children move through stages of play that contribute to their social development. This categorization remains relevant in child development and education, providing insight into how children learn to interact with one another through play. The contributions of Jean Piaget, Mary Ainsworth, and Lev Vygotsky are significant within their own contexts, focusing on cognitive development, attachment theory, and cultural-historical context in learning, respectively, but it is Parten who specifically categorized social participation through play behaviors.

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