Bob Hughes’s Types of play

Rough and Tumble play – close encounter play which might involve touching, tickling, gauging strength and discovering physical flexibility Socio-dramatic play – the enactment of real and potential experienced of an intense personal, social, domestic o interpersonal nature. Social play – where the rules and criteria for social engagement and interaction can be revealed, explored and amended. Creative play – that facilitates novel responses, the transformation of information, awareness of new connections or an element of surprise Communication play – using words or gestures (e.g. mime, jokes, play acting, singing, rhymes, poetry). Dramatic play – that dramatises events in which the child does not or has not participated. Symbolic play – that allows control, gradual exploration and increased understanding about objects. Deep play – that allows children to encounter risky experiences, to evaluate risk and conquer fear.

Bob Hughes’s Types of play

Exploration play – with factual information consisting of manipulative behaviour such as handling, throwing, banging or mouthing objects. Fantasy play – that rearranges the real world and in ways that are never likely to really occur. Imaginative play – where the conventional rules that normally regulate behaviour do not apply. Loco motor play – movement in any or every direction for its own sake. Object play – that uses infinite and interesting sequences of hand-eye manipulations and movements. Role play – that explores different ways of being, although not normally of an intense personal, social, domestic or interpersonal nature. Recapitulative play – that allows children to explore ancestry, history, rituals, stories, rhymes, fire and darkness, enabling children to access play of earlier human evolutionary stages.

Hughes,  2006;  in  Mukherji,  P.  and  Dryden,  L.  (2014)  Founda'on  of  Early  Childhood  -­‐  Principles  and  Prac'ce  London:  Sage