Book 1

The Development Of Play

by David Cohen

Published September 1986

Why do children play?

What can children learn from playing?

What have psychologists learned from 150 years of studying play – usually a bit too seriously?

The Development of Play explores the central role of play in childhood development. David Cohen examines how children play with objects, with language, and most importantly with each other and their parents. He explains how play enables children to learn how to move, think, speak and imagine, as well as to develop emotionally and socially. Incorporating much of the recent research in this area, including that of John Flavell, Henry Wellman and others, The Development of Play shows how play encourages children to grasp the difference between appearance and reality.

This new edition updates and builds on the previous two editions, to include new research on pretending and the theory of mind, autism and how parents can play creatively with their children. Play therapy, the history of play and how play is dealt with in the media are also covered. The book addresses the often ignored subject of adult games and why adults sometimes find it difficult to play. The Development of Play offers a fascinating review of the importance of play in all our lives.


The Development of Play - Ed 3

by David Cohen

Published 28 February 2006

The spontaneous imaginings of childhood have a unique fascination. They take various forms, including make-believe, the creation of imaginary companions, pretence and day-dreaming. One less common but delightful form of imagining is the spontaneous creation of an imaginary private world, which for a considerable period keeps recurring and thereby tends to become elaborated and systematized. Such paracosms, as the authors call them, vary widely, according to the age at which they begin, the time for which they continue, and the influence of such factors as gender and family. In this study David Cohen, film maker and psychologist, and Stephen MacKeith, retired psychiatrist, have gathered together and explored the material relating to over 60 examples of such private worlds. The result is a study of an imaginative activity that has been part of the childhood of such brilliant and creative minds as Friedrich Nietzsche, Anthony Trollope, Thomas de Quincey, C.S. Lewis and Robert Louis Stevenson. This book should be of interest to developmental and child psychologists, child psychiatrists, and teaching professionals.