Child Development
Interconnections Between Child Temperament and Play
To Prepare:
- Observe children under the age of 5 in a public place for at least 15 minutes. For example, you could go to a park or a play area at a local mall.
- If you do not have access to a public place where children might be playing (e.g., you are on military deployment), you may find a video on the Internet of children playing and submit this to your Instructor for approval to analyze in place of the live observation.
- Select 2 or 3 children on which to focus your observations. Take notes on each child’s specific temperament and play behaviors with peers.
The Assignment (3–4 pages):
- Describe the setting of your observation.
- Summarize the aspects of each child’s temperament that you observed. Then summarize each child’s play behaviors (group, solitary, activities, etc.).
- Explain how each child’s temperament affected his or her peer interactions. Please make sure that the majority of your paper focuses on interpreting your observations through research on temperament, play, and their interplay.
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Required Readings
Caster, T. R. (1984). The young child’s play and social and emotional development. In T. D. Yawkey & A. D. Pelligrini (Eds.), Child’s play and play therapy (pp. 17–29). Lancaster, PA: Technomic.
Child’s Play and Play Therapy, by T. D. Yawkey; A. D. Pelligrini. Copyright 1984 by Scarecrow Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Scarecrow Press, Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Chen, X., & Schmidt, L. A. (2015). Temperament and personality. In M. E. Lamb (Vol. Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Series Ed.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science: Vol. 3. Socioemotional processes (7th ed., pp. 152–200). New York, NY: Wiley.
Kandler, C., Riemann, R., & Angleitner, A. (2012). Patterns and sources of continuity and change of energetic and temporal aspects of temperament in adulthood: A longitudinal twin study of self and peer reports. Developmental Psychology, 49(9), 1739–1753. doi: 10.1037/a0030744
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.
Rispoli, K. M., McGoey, K. E., Koziol, N. A., & Schreiber, J. B. (2013). The relation of parenting, child temperament, and attachment security in early childhood to social competence at school entry. Journal of School Psychology, 51, 643–658.
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.
Required Media
This week, you watch the second half of this video on human emotions.
Note: You will access this media program from the Walden Library databases.
Answer previewChild temperament goes a long way when it comes to the participation of a child in play. Different children have different types of temperament. These temperaments contribute to how much a child is going to play or not. The different attitudes form a child’s character throughout the lifespan. Primarily, child temperament focuses on how a child approaches different situations and appearances in the world…
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