Child's play:
Child's play is any purposeful physical or mental activity that is done individually or in a group and causes enjoyment and fulfillment of the child's needs.
Children show their strengths and weaknesses, such as the tendency to command or obey, aggression or surrender, sociability or isolation, as well as friendly or hostile feelings, depression or happiness, desires and wishes through play.
Children play different games, each of the children's games represents one of their feelings. To express their aggressive behavior, children play games in which they can find a way to express their anger by attacking and destroying normal and spiritual phenomena.
Symbolic games
Symbolic games, which are the climax of children's games, begin at about one and a half or two years of age and reach perfection at the age of five and six. It reaches itself and continues until the age of eight or nine. In fact, symbolic play begins when the child gradually opens up the language and has the ability to use language signs and symbols.
Symbolic games are different from imitative and dramatic games, in imitative and dramatic games, the child projects his desires and wishes by using the available tools and in this way achieves internal and external pleasure and It frees itself from tensions.
In both of these games (imitation and demonstration), the child tries to reach the real objects and tools in his environment and start playing with those tools, but in many cases, the limitations prevent the child from reaching the tools and It is the equipment that is needed in the game.
It is at this stage that the child turns to symbolic games to solve his problem, new elements enter the children's game. Facts change shape. Objects that do not exist are represented by other objects.
Children's games are group games of children that may also be played by adults, which are usually played in the street, school or yard. Popular sports games such as football are not covered.
Types of childish games
How a child plays and what kind of game he plays largely depends on his age and level of development.
Games are divided into different types according to their content and the child's inclinations and tendencies, which originate from his inner circumstances and based on the attitude and perspective that psychological theorists have towards the child.
Physical games
These types of games are among the oldest types of games. The child devotes time to physical games to release excess energy from his body or to get rid of depression and fatigue. Physical games can be group and individual or a combination of both.
among the games, imitative, dramatic, symbolic, and imaginative games because of the importance they have in knowing and examining the mental, psychological, and therapeutic condition of the child, and because children are more inclined to these games and The sharing of these games makes it a bit difficult to recognize them, so we have given priority to reviewing and describing these games.
Imitation games
The imitation instinct is one of the strong and rooted instincts in humans. Thanks to the existence of this instinct, the child learns and uses many life customs, social etiquette, eating, dressing, speaking, pronouncing words and sentences from parents and other associates. A person imitates others more or less throughout his life, but he uses this faculty more between the ages of one and five years.
Children first start imitating their parents, so they imitate most of their parents' activities at home. Boys imitate tasks and occupations that are more related to men, and girls are interested in repeating the activities related to mothers. For example, boys like to play the role of builder, salesman, shopkeeper, driver, doctor, pilot, policeman, etc., while girls like to play the role of mother and nurse, such as cleaning the house, cooking, Wash and iron clothes etc. as a game.