Synopsis The Power of Play was written in 2007 by a longtime professor and American child psychologist, David Elkind.

Before we delve into the ma or claims and arg!ments in the novel, Power of Play, we wo!ld like to spend a little bit of time talking abo!t the a!thor of this te"t, in order to shed some light on the concepts that we will later be mentioning. Elkind has written over a do#en novels, his ma or novels incl!de The Hurried Child, The Power of Play, Miseducation, and All Grown Up and No Place to Go. $he first three of these fo!r works deal with early childhood ed!cation and the effect of the elementary school c!rric!l!m. %t is evident that Elkind&s primary interest is in the ed!cation of yo!ng children and how both school systems and society can infl!ence it. 'any of his works have this common, rec!rring theme, dealing with child development, the ed!cation system, and interactions between his s!b ects. The Power of Play is a very infl!ential book that e"plores and analy#es a variety of topics, b!t mainly what Elkind considers an (essential trio)*play, love, and work. +ason ,oroncy, a writer for -aternal .ife 'aga#ine, states that Elkind&s thesis is that !nstr!ct!red play is necessary in a child&s development. %t allows them to strengthen their imaginations and to develop social skills. /e wo!ld agree that Elkind&s foc!s is on this idea of play and how f!ndamental a role it is, or sho!ld be, in a child&s life. 0e ties together play, love, and work, and makes the claim that these three concepts are inborn ideas that drive o!r tho!ghts and actions. Another topic that Elkind brings !p thro!gho!t The

Power of Play is the modern child&s daily sched!le1 incl!ding parent involvement, after school activities, and the !se of toys and technology, is too b!sy. /itho!t free2range play, there can be no learning. Elkind is 3!oted saying, (.earning is the prod!ct of play2generated e"periences limited only by the child&s level of intellect!al development,) and that there are fo!r different types of play1 mastery play, innovative play, kinship play, and therape!tic play. %f a child&s sched!le is too crowded with after school activities and sports teams, then there is only time for work, not play. .et !s begin with some of the ma or claims that Elkind makes in the first co!ple of chapters. As we stated earlier, Elkind believes that play, love, and work are inborn concepts that help g!ide o!r actions, tho!ghts, and decisions1 he goes on to say that as children grow older, these three ideas become separated and individ!ali#ed. D!ring the infancy and early childhood stage, children cannot disting!ish the three concepts. As children reach the elementary school age, the primary dynamic is work. 4ids are attempting to retain large 3!antities of information 5abo!t basic skills6 d!ring this stage of development, as well as learning how to become an integral member in the society in which they live. $hen, there is adolescence*a time dominated by love. $eenagers are more foc!sed on peer relationships and sociali#ation, d!e to the overwhelming amo!nt of physical, psychological, and emotional changes they are e"periencing, than they are on work and play. Aro!nd the time p!berty has ended and adolescents are becoming ad!lts is when play, love, and work, reach e3!ilibri!m for the first time. D!ring ad!lthood, play,

love, and work are, generally speaking, noticeably separated concepts and can be integrated into their daily lives with relative ease. $aking a co!ple steps back into childhood, Elkind spends a s!bstantial amo!nt of time on how kids either 5a6 choose to play or 5b6 are primed to play, primarily foc!sing on toys and technology. 0e makes the claim that contemporary children receive too many toys far too often and, f!rthermore, that the toys they receive are not physically or mentally beneficial. $o stim!late the mind and senses, toys sho!ld have a certain physical 3!ality to them*a te"t!re, for e"ample*especially d!ring these early stages of life. An overab!ndance of toys makes it significantly less likely that a child will favor, become attached, or have a personal connection to any partic!lar toy. $oys sho!ld stim!late a child and f!lly engage their imagination. Elkind arg!es that too many toys can breed contempt in a child and ca!se an overall deval!ing of the idea behind toys. %n addition, Elkind claims that technology is becoming too prevalent in the lives of children1 that comp!ter games and screenplay are taking !p more and more time, while !ninstr!cted, physical, stim!lating activity is taking !p less and less. Elkind sees this as a ma or setback and, essentially, an !phill battle beca!se of the advertising and commerciali#ation of contemporary times. $echnologically advanced toys often do not re3!ire m!ch skill and, th!s, can create a .ake /obegon Effect. $his effect can be hindering in that it leads children to overestimate their abilities. %t is very easy for people to want to blame the parents for giving their children s!ch

devices, b!t what abo!t society and o!r obsession with cons!merism7 /hat abo!t the advertising agencies and mass media, are they to blame as well7 /e will revisit this idea d!ring o!r eval!ation of the work. .ater on in the te"t, Elkind makes several claims concerning parents and how they choose to rear their children. Elkind believes that parental angst can lead to overprotection and sometimes over programming. 8irst time parents tend to fear what others think of them and are afraid of being !dged, based on their choice of parenting techni3!es. $his is similar to what adolescents go thro!gh with an imaginary a!dience1 both parties believe that they are being watched, !dged, and critici#ed. -arental angst can res!lt in what Elkind disc!sses as three different types of overparenting9 hyperparenting, overprotection, and over programming. 0yperparenting consists of parents hovering over their children and being overly involved in their daily lives. /hereas, overprotection is a parent&s desire to protect their children&s innocence and physical well2being. 8inally, there is over programming, which stems from a parent&s fear of not doing eno!gh for their children, ca!sing them to p!sh their children to do too m!ch. Each of these parenting styles can h!rt the development of children and keep them from becoming healthy ad!lts. .astly, Elkind makes the claim that there e"ists an (age of reason.) $his age of reason is aro!nd early elementary school age. :hildren prior to this (age of reason) think in concrete terms*Elkind says this mode of thinking is sometimes referred to as mythic or syncretic thinking.

E"periences that facilitate the growth of a child&s reasoning abilities incl!de9 the elements 5earth, water, air, fire61 plants and animals1 the cosmos 5s!n, moon, stars, planets61 and playacting. :onse3!ently, the development of a child&s reasoning abilities can be st!nted by a lack of self2directed play and e"ploration.

Critical Evaluation and Integration %n his book, David Elkind took ;igm!nd 8re!d&s idea of having love and work as the aspects that f!lfill one&s life and added his own element9 play. Elkind believes that it is a balance of play, work, and love that makes a wonderf!l life. All thro!gh this book, Elkind describes and gives e"amples of how parents and ed!cators balance play, work, and love in their lives. Elkind e"plains how the foc!s in early childhood sho!ld be play, the foc!s elementary age children sho!ld be work, the foc!s of adolescents sho!ld be

love, b!t play sho!ld bring all of these aspects together. Elkind does a good ob of linking each of these aspects to the different stages of development o!tlined by +ean -iaget. /e believe that Elkind did a good ob of ill!strating his point of the importance of play all thro!gho!t his book. %t is evident in o!r lives that college age st!dents tend to choose a career that they en oy, therefore making work their play. Each one of !s has the desire to play and that is what David Elkind is trying to ill!strate in his book. After he talks abo!t the integration of play, work and love in children&s lives, David Elkind introd!ces fo!r different types of play. $he first type of play is that of the mastery play. $his type of play is for children at a yo!nger age, it allows them to !se play to master or learn how something in their world works. Elkind&s arg!ment for this importance of this type of play is very compelling. 0e gives e"ample of children learning ob ect permanence as part of mastery play, which coincides with +ean -iaget&s theory of the sensorimotor stage where ob ect permanence is not mastered !ntil abo!t eight months of age. 0owever, a drawback of this e"ample for Elkind is that many have st!died -iaget&s theory of the sensorimotor period and have fo!nd that -iaget may have !nderestimated the cognitive competence of infants and children. Elkind gives many more e"amples of mastery play to to!ch on the importance of this type of play in children&s lives. 'astery play is how children learn how to act and manip!late ob ects in their world. Elkind gives an e"ample of a child tying bows over and over again !ntil she finally learned how to tie a perfect bow. $his form of mastery play is well

tho!ght o!t by Elkind and ill!strates what we learned abo!t in -sychology 2<< :hildhood and Adolescence abo!t -iaget&s cognitive development theory. -iaget&s theory states that children are active participants to their own development. Altho!gh there are criti3!es of -iaget&s theory, it has remained so!nd thro!gho!t the years. $he ne"t type of play that Elkind describes is that of innovative play. $his type of play follows that of mastery play. %nnovative play is the type of play that children take part in to e"pand the skills that they have !st learned in mastery play. An e"ample of this is when a child has learned how to go down a slide in mastery play they then want to e"plore and try to go !p the slide. $his stage of play is when children invent new ways of play. $his type of play is related to that of accommodation. Accommodation is the idea that children modify pre2e"isting notions in light of new information 5As disc!ssed in class on +an!ary =0, 20>=6. :hildren !se accommodation when they develop new ways to play. /hen a child learns that he or she can add to different elements of their play they !se the skill of accommodation. /e believe that Elkind ill!strated this idea well in his section of innovative play. 0e gave many e"amples of how children e"pand on different games and activities that children have mastered. /e also believe that the importance of innovated play cannot be !nderestimated. $he period of innovative play is where children learn that they can invent new ideas. $he third type of play that Elkind describes is that of kinship play. 4inship play is defined as two children of abo!t the same age and si#e that

are nat!rally drawn to each other. :hildren who do not know each other are drawn comm!nicate thro!gh self2initiated play, and this is so en oyable beca!se both children are at the same skill level. /e agree with Elkind abo!t the importance of kinship play. Elkind gives the e"ample that children are foreigners in an ad!lt world and that !st like ad!lts who travel to a different co!ntry are glad to meet another American, children are delighted to meet another child. $he e"ample that Elkind gives tr!th to the perspective that the stages of development are !niversal, meaning that children of the same age are going thro!gh the same development stages no matter where they live. $he fo!rth and last type of play that Elkind describes is that of therape!tic play. Elkind describes therape!tic play as how children learn to cope with new and stressf!l events in their lives. Elkind gives many e"amples of this type of play. ?ne of these e"amples is that of a child that regresses to an infant like state when her mother becomes pregnant with a second baby. Elkind describes this child as going thro!gh a form of play that helps her !nderstand the new baby. $his passage on therape!tic play was diffic!lt to !nderstand. /e believe that Elkind sho!ld have !sed clearer c!t e"amples and gone more in depth as to how therape!tic play helps children with later development. 0owever, from what we did gain abo!t this type of play, is that is co!ld be connected to developing a partic!lar attachment type. At one point Elkind talks abo!t infants !sing this type of play to learn abo!t how to cope with their mothers leaving the room and ret!rning. $his

type of play co!ld be !sed to learn how to deal with the absence of parents, which then leads to the different types of attachment children develop. %n terms of play d!ring a child&s life, toys are a ma or component. Elkind states in his book that toys sho!ld be given in order to enco!rage a growth in imagination. +osh!a Becker, the a!thor of the Becoming a 'inimalist blog, states in an article titled (/hy 8ewer $oys /ill Benefit @o!r 4ids) that if children have less toys that children will become more creative, will develop longer attention spans, become more reso!rcef!l, and will learn perseverance. -revio!sly we stated that Elkind arg!es that too many toys can breed contempt in a child. Elkind wo!ld advise parents to only give their children toys on special occasions and that the toys sho!ld be mentally and physically stim!lating for the child at their specific age gro!ps. /e do not feel as tho!gh Elkind has eno!gh evidence to s!pport s!ch a strong claim against technology. 0e makes many valid points, incl!ding that we sho!ld not ass!me screen media has the same impact on all children and that we sho!ld be more 5rather than less6 foc!sed on how actively engaged a child is, beca!se that&s what determines the amo!nt of impact. 8!rthermore, a longit!dinal st!dy showed that adolescents who, as preschoolers, preferred ed!cational programs which re3!ired more viewer participation (earned higher grades, read more books, placed more val!e on achievement, and showed greater creativity and less aggression) than did adolescents who, as preschoolers, preferred ed!cational programs which re3!ired less viewer participation. $his, here, s!pports a certain type of

screenplay over another, which is better than nothing at all, which Elkind seems to neglect. Elkind arg!es that it is cr!cial for infantsAyo!ng children to spend their waking ho!rs (actively relating to caregivers) 5the most central stim!l!s to the healthy growth and development6 and (e"ploring their sensory world thro!gh active play.) As long as screenplay does not begin to take priority over, or is not !sed to avoid, interactions between child and caregiver, we see no reason for screenplay to be disco!raged. %f Elkind&s claim had the s!pport of years and years of research by psychologists and ed!cators, we wo!ld be significantly more inclined to oppose technology on s!ch a broad scale, too1 however, we find Elkind to be !n !stly critical of technology and the progression of technology, for that matter. $ho!gh not every e"perience, and especially the extent of many e"periences, can be made virt!al, we believe that there are technologies that provide legitimate aspects of what the parallel, real2world e"perience provides. .astly, Elkind, at first, seemingly so opposed to technology, does later acknowledge the benefits of comp!ter games in classrooms. $his inconsistency m!ddled his initial claim, leaving !s to be all the more !nconvinced. ;ociety has been becoming more dependent on technology for years now 5eno!gh years to meas!re and criti3!e differences6, and we do not see a significant decline in o!r global level of intelligence 5and Elkind does not address one6, th!s, technology m!st not be h!rting !s too m!ch. /e believe that it doesn&t matter how many children yo! have, a parent will always be protective of their children. ;ome of the intr!siveness

that was disc!ssed in this portion of the book is not all bad1 we think that some level of protectiveness is needed to reflect a healthy love for a parent&s child. Elkind claims that parents show signs of overparenting beca!se they are worried abo!t how other parents perceive them. $his is similar to teen&s belief in an imaginary a!dience. %n terms of over programming, Elkind states that at the age of si", a child sho!ld be involved in three e"trac!rric!lar activities. ;ome activities are more time cons!ming than others and it wo!ld be worse to have the child participating in too many activities that co!ld take himAher away from their st!dies. /e believe that children sho!ld be involved o!tside of school, b!t no so m!ch as to distract from academics. -arents need to help their children reach e3!ilibri!m, while allowing them eno!gh space to become their own individ!al. As we have fo!nd thro!gho!t the Power of Play, Elkind occasionally fails to provide s!fficient empirical proof to s!pport some of his arg!ments1 this is the case concerning his arg!ment abo!t how to handle the stage prior to the (age of reason.) Elkind arg!es !sing an (imaginary mediator,) prior to this age, is a good way to bridge the gap between a child&s intellect!al immat!rity and a child&s ac3!isition of the age of reason. 5?nce they approach andAor s!rpass this age, they have the abilities needed to learn general r!les, so the imaginary mediator wo!ld no longer be necessary.6 0is claim is that this mediator helps to (recogni#e the child&s immat!rity in an accepting and h!moro!s way, while helping the child anticipate being able to comply in the f!t!re.) 0owever, as Elkind, himself, e"plains, we are taking a

page from children&s books and making an imaginary a!thority the (bad g!y,) here. %s it a good idea to*literally*be taking a childs approach at a problem7 %f it were psychologically s!pported, which we 3!estion mainly beca!se he did not mention anything abo!t it being statistically significant, then we wo!ld accept this child&s approach. $he fact of the matter is, this approach appears not to be s!pported, or at least from the lack of evidence Elkind provides.

References Becker, +osh!a. B/hy 8ewer $oys /ill Benefit @o!r 4ids.B Minimalist. C.p., n.d. /eb. >D Apr. 20>=. Elkind, David. The Power of Play. :ambridge, 'A9 Da :apo .ifelong, 2007. -rint. ,oroncy, +ason. B$he -ower of -lay9 A Eeview.B Paternal "ife. C.p., n.d. /eb. >0 Apr. 20>=. ecomin!