PLAY IS FOR CHILDREN BOTH A NEED AND A RIGHT

Abstract

In the Introduction the author discusses the universal character of children’s play and its relationship with local cultural practices. This is done with reference to two main contemporaries theories about play development: those of Piaget and Vygostsky. It is followed by a description of different types of children’s play and it is pointed out the relevance that pretend play (make believe play) had in intervention studies conducted in the second half of the XX century. The relationship between culture and play, both in games with rules as in pretend play, shows the relevance of culture to understand and interpret children’s play activities. The article concludes with an analysis of Bruner’s on the relationship among education, epistemology and play. He urges not to reduce education to the transmission of knowledge as content, but to stimulate children to explore the process of knowing and understanding, to initiate them as epistemologists. Their attitudes while playing should reassure us that this is possible.