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.

游戏是一件需要很认真对待和研究的事情，开拓者心理学家利维.沃格斯格认为，在学前阶段，游戏是孩子学习历程的开始。通过游戏，孩子学习和发展了自己基本的社会技能，他们的自我以及与他人互动的能力，怎么交朋友，怎么说谎，怎么进行角色扮演。

在20世纪末，明尼斯达州的玛瑞德.帕特研在儿童发展学院发表了有名的研究 游戏和孩子发展的关系。.

帕特通过对孩子行为系统有效的观察搜集到这些信息，利用事先安排好的一分钟对孩子进行有组织性的观察。发现前四个游戏和其他小朋友的互动很少，但是后两个的互动性很强。通过孩子直接互换他们的游戏类型，帕特观察到他们的成长过程，在开始的四个游戏类型中缺少参与性，但在互动性很强的两个游戏中，参与性确很强。闲置的游戏：孩子基本上是不动的或者是没有意识偶尔的活动，是一种比较少见的游戏类型。

个人的游戏：孩子完全沉浸在自己的游戏中，不会去关注其它的孩子，这种情况在2-3岁的孩子中比较多见。

旁观这的游戏：孩子对其他孩子的游戏很感兴趣，但是不会参与其中，也许会询问或者交谈单主要的趋势就是观看。

相似性的行为：孩子模范其它孩子的游戏但是并不参与其中，比如他们用同一款玩具。

相对与他们的玩具他们对彼此更有兴趣，这是孩子玩耍时社会性的开始 协作性的游戏：游戏开始有组织性，游戏有目的性而且进行了角色分工。