Play in Hinckley and Bosworth
Different types of play
Play is very complex and below are listed some of the 15 definitions of the play types.
Creative play
Where children have access to lots of different creative media and tools, and there is plenty of time and where getting messy isn’t a problem.
Communication play
Communication play includes using words, jokes, mime, singing, play-acting, debate, poetry, gestures or facial expressions.
Deep play
Children encounter risky experiences and conquer fears.
Dramatic play
Where children figure out roles to play, assign them and act them out.
Exploratory play
Engaging with an object or an area, and either by manipulation or movement, assessing its properties, possibilities and content. Putting one thing into another, putting shape blocks into shape box, or toys in a house; stacking and making spatial configurations.
Fantasy play
When children play at pilot flying around the world, as an owner of an expensive car, or as the catcher of a giant fish. A child rearranges their play to link the imagined objects and situations to the tangible and visible things of the real world.
Imaginative play
Patting a dog that isn’t there, eating food that doesn’t exist, or singing into a non-existent microphone.
Locomotor play
To chase, tag, hide and seek, off-ground touch and tree climbing, galloping, swinging, climbing.
Mastery play
Fire play, digging holes, changing the course of streams, constructing shelters and growing things.
Hendrick, I. (1942) 'an inborn drive to do and learn how to do, an urge to master the environment'.
Object play
Examination and novel use of almost any object. For example, a ball, a piece of cloth, even a live animal.
Role play
The child brushes with a broom, dials a telephone, drives the car. A child plays out particular sequences of events.
Rough and tumble
Playful fighting, wrestling and chasing, where children involved are laughing and squealing and obviously enjoying themselves.
Social play
Building or painting something together, co-operatively moving/carrying something. Team games.
Socio-dramatic play
Children act out experiences, for examples playing house, going to the shops. The children imitate situations and take on the roles of certain people.
Symbolic play
Using a object, action or idea to represent other objects, actions or ideas.
Some definitions were taken from ‘The First Claim’ Play Wales.
More detailed descriptions can be found in, Hughes, B. (1996a) ‘A Playworkers Taxonomy of Play Types’ London: PLAYLINK.
Last updated: 24/09/2025 09:38
