Playmates and Different Cultures

While completing this weeks reading I found the topic of playmates and cultural differences in play interesting. Berger stated that children enjoy playing with peers more then they like playing with their parents. I wonder why that is? The more I think about this concept the more I believe that people are truly social beings. That humans are born wanting to socialize and play with others our own age. I believe that children not only play to socialize but to learn as well. Children play to learn social skills and also other lessons such as sharing, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, rules, etc. I think that children do like to play with their parents but the socialization that children get from their parent is different from that of a child their own age. The other topic I found interesting was that children's play varies depending on their culture. I think it's interesting that children create games and pretend based only on their surroundings and what they know as reality. This goes hand in hand with the previous chapter that states that children are egocentric and only know the world by what they see. Play is essential to children to learn and grow and I personally believe that the more people try to eliminate play from a child there will be detrimental consequences for that child. Children need to be able to express themselves in order to learn and grow.

Reference:

Berger, K. S. (2011). The Developing Person Through the Life Span. New York: Worth Publishers.