Essay for my masters at Swansea University

1. Differences in Play
Why and how do cultural differences manifest in children’s play?
Evaluate appropriate research evidence to support your answer.
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The cultural settings in which children grow up have profound influences on how
children develop and play.
Penn (2005) described culture as a:
“ ..a conglomeration of different, sometimes incompatible, views and understandings in a
given society or community…..” (Penn, p92).
For this paper I will use Penn’s definition of culture to investigate its influence on
children’s play. Research papers on play and culture point to many causal factors for
cultural differences manifesting in play. This paper will highlight these factors with
research evidence.
One of the factors noted by researchers that can affect play is parental beliefs and
behaviours. Play behaviours are not only influenced by immediate and social context, but
also by the beliefs, attitudes, and values {inner psychology of the parents and teachers
concerning the importance of play in early development} Roopnarine, Shin, Jung and
Hossain (2003).
Adult modelling of children’s play has been investigated in an experimental setting by
Nielson and Christie (2008).
Nielson and Christie investigated the effect on modelling on children’s behaviour. The
children aged 27-41 months were given 4 minutes free play with a dolls house and

2. associated toy props. An experimenter then acted out a series of scenes using the dolls
involving object substitutions, imaginary play and attribution of properties. The children
were given another 4 minutes of free play {post-modelling). The researcher’s findings
were that:
The children exhibited more pretend play after modelling. The children were also more
likely to generate their own novel pretence, as they were to copy the actions
demonstrated by the experimenter. The children increased the number of novel symbolic
acts involving imaginary play from the pre-modelling phase to the post-modelling phase.
Farver and Lee (1997) studied pretend play amongst Korean-American and Anglo-
American pre-schoolers. The children (46 Anglo-American and 46 Korean-American)
were observed during free play activities and videotaped in an experimental toy setting.
Cultural differences were examined in the frequency of social pretend play,
communicative strategies and pretend play.
The researchers found that the Anglo-American children engaged in more pretend play
during free play activities than Korean-American children. In this experimental setting
there were no cultural differences in the frequency of pretend play. There were however,
significant differences in children’s communicative strategies and in their play themes.
Korean-American children’s play included everyday activity and family role themes. The
Anglo-American children enacted danger in the environment and fantastic themes. The
Anglo-American group also described their own actions and rejected their partner’s
suggestions and used directives. The Korean-American‘s described their partner’s actions
and used tag questions, semantic ties and statements of agreement and polite request. The
study showed that play is a common activity, but the thematic content and the
communication strategies used to structure and maintain pretend play are influenced by
culture.
In an earlier study Farver, Kim, And Lee (1995) found that Korean American children
living in Los Angeles preferred academic activities over play. Here, perhaps we see
children manifesting their parent’s belief in academic achievement at an early age. Even

3. in societies that are concerned about academic achievement, parents have now placed
play as an important factor for socialisation and self-expression (Holmes 2001). A study
in Japan (Ishigaki and Lin, 2000) found that 67.6% of teachers in Japan, 78.5% in Korea
and 56.7% in China endorsed play as part of the schools curriculum.
Research in experimental settings perhaps has limitations on viewing culture and its
influences on play in a more natural setting. Studies of parent and child play in the home
appear to have some critical value on defining play behaviours. It could be argued that
the variations of play behaviours in culturally diverse children could be rooted in the
child’s experience of parent-child play. Roopnarine and Johnson (2001) catalogued the
incredible variation in the style and the amount of parent-child play across cultures:
Roopnarine (2001) documented studies finding that parent-child play at home had strong
links with the peer social system in a nursery setting. Macdonald and Parke (1986)
researched parent-child interactions of boys aged 3 to 5 at a Californian nursery. The
boys were rejected, neglected or considered popular by their peers. Fathers of neglected
boys engaged less affectively in arousing physical play than the fathers of popular and
rejected boys. There was more over stimulation or parental direction of the rejected boys.
The rejected boys would in turn avoid stimulation or would be less likely to join in
discussions or make suggestions in the classroom setting.
Macdonald and Parke (1986) found that there was also a negative relationship between
physical play and the age of the parent. There were strong gender differences in parental
engagement in physical games with the children, limb movement games, bouncing and
lifting games were more characteristic of the play of fathers. Conventional games like pat
a cake and peek a boo were more characteristic of the play of mothers.
Cross-cultural literature on parent-child rough play is small, but it is interesting.
Roopnarine and Johnson (2001) stated that generally rough play begins in infancy peaks
in pre-school and is uncommon after 10 years of age. Boys are more likely to be the
recipients of physical play than girls.

4. Roopnarine has carried out extensive research into rough play in Asian cultural settings.
In New Delhi, India, during the infancy period physical play, described here as rough,
tossing, tickling, bouncing, poking was observed in relatively low frequencies: Less than
one incident per one hour of observation. (Roopnarine, Taluker, Jain, Joshi and Sirvastav
1992). In Chi Chi, Dongkong, Taipei and Kalishung, Taiwan, rough play was recorded
on average less than one incident per one hour of observation. (Sun and Roopnarine
1996). Among older children, however, it accounted for about a third of play activities of
mothers and fathers and school children residing in Chang Mai Province in Northern
Thailand. Rough play was still infrequent and researchers recorded lass than one incident
across families in two hours of observations. (Tulananda and Roopnarine 2001).
Parent child games appear to be universal in their common form, but there are noticeable
stylistic differences. Games that involve face-to-face encounters may be more
characteristic of parents and children in some cultures than in others.
Research has revealed profound postural differences in parental engagement across
cultures. Japanese mothers loom in and out, tap infants to create visual displays and hold
and touch the infant continuously. White American mothers use their voice and are more
responsive to the infant’s vocalizations during face-to-face encounters. (Fogel, Nwokah
and Kerns 1993). In India early parent child games involve specific texts. Igbo and
Sinhala mothers include songs, lullabies, poetry or rhymes in face to face encounters
(Roopnarine, et al 1998).
During these playful interactions with their parents they learn and absorb aspects of their
cultures. Roopnarine (1998) summarised the themes that emerged when traditional and
non-traditional cultures were compared:
*Children’s play is more likely to reflect rituals and customs in traditional societies.
* One-to one play is more common in non-traditional societies.

5. * Group participation, interdependence and community values are transmitted through
play in traditional cultures. Self-reliance, independence and competition are encouraged
by non-traditional cultures.
* In traditional cultures play tends to occur in work-related settings.
* Variations of games such as peek-a-boo and pat a cake played between parents and
their children can occur across traditional and non-traditional cultures. Roopnarine et al.
(1998).
Research on the cultural differences in play has extensively focused on how boys and
girls play differently. Parents have been seen to contribute to the gender role development
of children. Lindsey, Mize, Pettit (1997) examined the extent of mother’s and father’s
involvement in children’s play. The stylistic variations in that play were examined among
pre-school children. The gender differences revealed that boys were more likely to play
more physically than girls and that girls were more likely to engage in pretence play.
Both girls and boys would play at pretend more in the presence of mothers than fathers.
The analysis of parental involvement in this study revealed some interesting stylistic
variations in the parent and child play behaviours. Parents of girls were more likely to be
involved in pretence play than parents of boys. Father’s of boys were more likely to be
involved in physical play than fathers of girls or mothers of boys and girls. Parents of
girls were more likely to comply with their children’s play leads than were parents of
boys. Mothers were more likely to comply with children’s play directives than were
fathers. The data suggests that parents may contribute to children’s gender specific types
of play and influence children by modelling particular play behaviours and/ or providing
differential patterns of reinforcement to sons and daughters. (Lindsey, Mize and Pettit
1997)
Other gender differences emerge in the way girls and boys communicate with their peers
in a play a setting. Serbin et al. (1982) found that girls use polite requests and persuasion
to get what they want in the play situation, whereas boys relied on commands and
physical force.

6. In observations of children’s play in London inner city schools Sayeed and Guerin (2001)
noted separate play patterns between boys and girls. Boys tended to re-enact fantasy
situations such as fighting, cops and robbers, whereas girls tended to act out real
situations from their immediate culture. Examples of girls play behaviour were feeding a
doll in the role of a mother. Sayeed and Guerin (2001) suggest it was debatable whether
gender preferences for particular types of play were the result of a socialisation process
where expectations around what boys and girls play and how they play are learned. This
is perhaps illustrated in research by Martin and Little (1990), which showed that young
children only needed a rudimentary understanding of gender differences prior to the
children learning about sex stereotypes and prior to showing sex-typed preferences for
peers or toys.
The social class or economic situation that a child is born into can be a contributory
factor in cultural differences in play. Early research viewed children from a low socio-
economic class as being deprived of play or were deficient in imaginative play behaviour
in comparison to their middle-class peers. (Smilansky 1968) Later researchers, Johnson,
Christie and Yawkkey (1987) discussed these controversies and concluded that evidence
suggested that materially deprived children or children from a low social-class engage
differently in imaginative play than middle-class children.
Sutton-Smith and Heath (1981) described differences in imaginative play style related to
culture. They analyzed two styles of imaginative behaviour in the form of story telling.
They compared a sample of stories told by working class black children in Piedmont,
Carolina, and a sample of stories by middle-class white children in New York. Stories
told by the working class Afro-American children tended to be relatively personal and
taken mostly from real-life experiences. The White middle-income group of children told
stories in the third person and which were more fantasy-like in content. Of the New York
stories, 95% were in the third person, but only 30% of stories by the Afro-American
children were. In their study Sutton-Smith and Heath (1982) found evidence of the very
different imaginations that children possessed. The Afro-American children were able to

7. show their imaginative talents in a more collective context. Sutton-Smith and Heath
suggested that children who come from more orally based than literary based cultures
appear more imaginative and playful when words are the main activity.
Researchers have drawn attention to the cross-cultural link between play and work. The
distinction between play and work become clearer as children age. In the UK the shift
towards less play based activities seems to occur at the transition from pre-school early
years settings to school. (Sayeed and Guerin 2001). Sayeed also suggests that ‘play-time’
during the school day can create the distinction for children of what is play and what is
not play.
Kalliala (2006) focused on hobbies as a direct way for parents to educate their children.
In her study of Scandinavian children she found that many 6 year olds had up to 3 weekly
hobbies e.g. Music, dance or sport after a full day at school or day care setting. Many of
the parents in her study encouraged their children to use technology. The parents believed
that technology would help advancement in their child’s adult life.
Penn (2005) argues that as children age in developing countries like Africa adults are less
likely to play with them. The reasons are given as economic, as parents have little time to
play with children and have to earn a living. From the ages of 5 years children in settings
such as Kenya are given more work according to the seasonal changes of their
environment. (Whiting and Edwards 1988), an example may be tending to animals,
herding, fishing and selling. Children from such communities mimic the adult roles in
preparation for an adult life. (Bloch and Adler 1994).
In both developed and developing countries material poverty does not prevent a child
from playing. The child will develop a sense of playfulness if the environment is
stimulating and will invent simple materials from nature or rejects from adults. (Bloch
and Pelligrini 1989).

8. Culture and society today is continuously being reshaped as people from different
communities, ethnic backgrounds, religions and countries come into contact with each
other. This is probably seen most obviously within cities where populations become more
diverse with the influx of migrants and refugees. Roopnarine and Johnson 2001 described
children’s play as a ‘social bridge’ between people of diverse cultures, that could help
foster a universal multi cultural education for early year’s settings.
Kalliala (2006) considered urbanisation, changing work patterns of parents and a more
middle-aged population having affected changes in society. Certainly societal influences
on children’s play may now be reflected through changes in family dynamics. Kallila
(2006) found that parents were more likely to adopt the role of a permissive parent,
placing importance on their child’s social skills and individual competence than a more
traditional approach that the child should internalize shared values without questioning
authority. Kallila found that some parents in her study adopted a ‘Pal’ parenting
approach. The ‘Pal’ approach being one of more guidance parents were more friends’
confidants and advisors. Hierarchical orders in the family group were rejected and the
parents appealed to children through discussion. (Kallila, p13).
Most researchers would agree that the status of play is ambiguous and constantly
changing. At an international level the child’s right to play has been recognised in Article
31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Hodgkin and Newell (1998)
proposed that play is exclusively an activity of children without the control of adults or
constraints of rules. Putting these ideals into practise would mean changes in adult
attitudes, resources and government cooperation.
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