Table 1.
Play typology comparison.
| Parten (1932) | K. Buhler (1937) | Piaget (1962) | Smilansky (1968) | Frost (1992) | Hughes (1996; 2002) | Rubin (2001; 2008) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social play | Cognitive play | Cognitive play | Cognitive play | Cognitive play | Play types | Cognitive |
| Unoccupied behavior | Functional games | Practice games | Functional games | Functional play | Symbolic play | Functional play |
| Onlooker behavior | Construction games | Symbolic games | Construction play | Dramatic play | Rough and tumble play | Constructive play |
| Solitary play | Make-believe games | Games with rules | Dramatic play | Organized games | Socio-dramatic play | Exploration * |
| Parallel play | Collective games | Games with rules | Social play | Social play | Dramatic play | |
| Associative play | Solitary | Creative play | Games with rules | |||
| Cooperative play | Parallel | Communication play | Occupied | |||
| Group | Dramatic play | Social play | ||||
| Other | Locomotor play | Solitary | ||||
| Exploratory | Deep play | Parallel | ||||
| Constructive | Exploratory play | Group | ||||
| Rough and tumble | Fantasy play | Non-play | ||||
| Chase games | Imaginative play | Unoccupied behavior | ||||
| Non-Play | Mastery play | Onlooker behavior | ||||
| Unoccupied | Object play | Transition | ||||
| Onlooker | Role play | Active conversation | ||||
| Transition | Recapitulative play | Uncodable behavior | ||||
| Aggression | Out of room | |||||
| Adult interaction/conversation | ||||||
| Double coded behaviors | ||||||
| Aggression | ||||||
| Rough and Tumble | ||||||
| Hovering | ||||||
| Anxious behaviors |
* Exploratory behaviors were considered “non-play” in 1989 version.