Play is a serious business. The pioneering developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky thought that, in the preschool years, play is the leading source of development.

Through play children learn and practice many basic social skills. They develop a sense of self, learn to interact with other children, how to make friends, how to lie and how to role-play.

The classic study of how play develops in children was carried out by Mildred Parten in the late 1920s at the Institute of Child Development in Minnesota. She closely observed children between the ages of 2 and 5 years and categorised their play into six types.

Parten collected data by systematically sampling the children's behaviour. She observed them for pre-arranged 1 minute periods which were varied systematically (Parten, 1933).

The thing to notice is that the first four categories of play don't involve much interaction with others, while the last two do. While children shift between the types of play, what Parten noticed was that as they grew up, children participated less in the first four types and more in the last two - those which involved greater interaction.

Unoccupied play: the child is relatively stationary and appears to be performing random movements with no apparent purpose. A relatively infrequent style of play.

Solitary play: the child is are completely engrossed in playing and does not seem to notice other children. Most often seen in children between 2 and 3 years-old.

Onlooker play: child takes an interest in other children's play but does not join in. May ask questions or just talk to other children, but the main activity is simply to watch.

Parallel play: the child mimics other children's play but doesn't actively engage with them. For example they may use the same toy.

Associative play: now more interested in each other than the toys they are using. This is the first category that involves strong social interaction between the children while they play.

Cooperative play: some organisation enters children's play, for example the playing has some goal and children often adopt roles and act as a group.

游戲是一件需要很認真對待和研究的事情，開拓者心理學家利維.沃格斯格認為，在學前階段，游戲是孩子學習歷程的開始。通過游戲，孩子學習和發展了自己基本的社會技能，他們的自我以及與他人互動的能力，怎么交朋友，怎么說謊，怎么進行角色扮演。

在20世紀末，明尼斯達州的瑪瑞德.帕特研在兒童發展學院發表了有名的研究 游戲和孩子發展的關系。.

帕特通過對孩子行為系統有效的觀察搜集到這些信息，利用事先安排好的一分鐘對孩子進行有組織性的觀察。發現前四個游戲和其他小朋友的互動很少，但是后兩個的互動性很強。通過孩子直接互換他們的游戲類型，帕特觀察到他們的成長過程，在開始的四個游戲類型中缺少參與性，但在互動性很強的兩個游戲中，參與性確很強。閑置的游戲：孩子基本上是不動的或者是沒有意識偶爾的活動，是一種比較少見的游戲類型。

個人的游戲：孩子完全沉浸在自己的游戲中，不會去關注其它的孩子，這種情況在2-3歲的孩子中比較多見。

旁觀這的游戲：孩子對其他孩子的游戲很感興趣，但是不會參與其中，也許會詢問或者交談單主要的趨勢就是觀看。

相似性的行為：孩子模范其它孩子的游戲但是并不參與其中，比如他們用同一款玩具。

相對與他們的玩具他們對彼此更有興趣，這是孩子玩耍時社會性的開始 協作性的游戲：游戲開始有組織性，游戲有目的性而且進行了角色分工。