Culture, Emotions, and Play

How do children learn to play?  How does play relate to emotional development?  How does culture shape both play and emotions?  Gaskins & Miller (2009) wrote a terrific article that examined these questions by comparing research with two distinct cultural groups—European-American middle class and Yucatec Mayan families.  Children’s engagement in pretend play was significantly different in each of these groups.  Children from the European-American middle class families were encouraged to engage in pretend play and were provided with resources such as toys and representations of fictional characters through television and reading.  For these children, pretend play offered opportunities to explore emotions, develop a repertoire of emotions, and explore the themes represented by fictional characters.  Children from the Yucatec Mayan families were noted to have less time to engage in pretend play as children were more involved in other functions in the family.  Their play tended to mimic the adult patterns that they observed around them and they had limited exposure to fictional characters.  

Gaskins & Miller’s work demonstrates that context has tremendous influence.  From a young age, social experience fosters ideas about how and what to do.  Children develop a social and emotional repertoire of behavior based on what they observe around them and opportunities they have for exploration.  The skills that they develop are often highly adaptive for their environment.  Children in the Yucatec Mayan families are developing an emotional repertoire that will likely serve them well in that environment.  My only critique of this work is that it presents some broad generalizations.  It was my experience working as a developmental therapist for early intervention, that there were some significant differences between individual families related to how play was supported in the family.  I worked in some homes where toys were plentiful, but the child struggled with organizing around play.  In other homes, the toys might have been fewer, but the play was rich.  As families moved through different transitions, the role of play sometimes changed.  Also, there are individual differences in children.  Some children will take the resources they are presented with and self-regulate their own play experiences.  Other children benefit from support to encourage and expand their play.  

The research presented by Gaskins & Miller is significant in that it reminds us to be aware of our own cultural lens.  They write, “cultural assumptions shared by researchers and participants were so familiar that they were nearly invisible” (p. 6).  We need to step back and examine experiences through a wider lens in order to be more aware of how context shapes development and learning.  It is, however, also important to adjust our lens between macro-culture and micro-culture levels of understanding.  Within each group, there may be a variety of experiences.  Play can serve as an important way that children learn about the world around them and develop a repertoire that will help develop adaptive behaviors for their local context.

 

To further extend on this idea, consider what happens when a child transitions between one context to another such as from home to school.  Sometimes the patterns of family learning serve the child well for adaptive behaviors in the school setting.  In other circumstances, however, there may be differences between the child’s skills and the demands of the context.  I once had a student who was an elementary school teacher.  She had a young student who was presenting with some challenging classroom behaviors.  The child constantly demanded attention.  When the teacher explored more about the child’s context, she found out that the child lived in a very crowded home environment and he was one of the youngest members of the family.  It is likely that the attention seeking behaviors were a means of survival in a crowded home environment.  Those skills that were adaptive in the home environment created challenge in the school environment.  Once the teacher viewed the student through this lens, she focused on teaching him a new repertoire of social and emotional behaviors that would serve him better in the school environment.  

Children learn from their environment.  They learn to adapt to that environment.  In our roles of parents, educators, therapist, or researchers, we can support that learning.

Gaskins, S. & Miller, P. (2009). The cultural roles of emotions in pretend play. In Clark, C.D. (Ed.)

                Transactions at Play. University Press of America.

Learning and Development

Psychologist Lev Vygotsky shaped the way people look at learning and development.  Vygotsky developed the concept of the zone of proximal development which identifies the level at which an individual can engage in a task independently in comparison to the level at which he or she can complete a task with assistance.  In fact, Vygotsky argues that a true measure of an individual’s capabilities is to look at what he or she can do with assistance or in a social relationship.  The social process “awakens a variety of internal developmental processes that operate only when the [person] is interacting with people in his environment and in cooperation with his peers” (p. 90).   The social context is essential for learning and development.

The summer Olympics is a good demonstration of Vygotsky’s concept.  All of the stories about Olympic athletes highlight the important relationships with coaches and other social supports.  Gymnast Gabby Douglas stole the hearts of the world with her gold medal performance.  At age 14, Gabby left her family to study with the coach she believed would help her reach her goals.  Her capabilities were maximized through that relationship.

This zone of proximal development does not just apply to Olympic athletes.  Children need parents or other adults to support and challenge their learning.  Students need dedicated teachers and opportunities to engage with their peers to create meaningful learning experiences.  Therapists provide the tools and foster experiences that extend the range of the client and promote healthy practices.  

As a college instructor, I consistently examine my own teaching practices.  Through reflection and reading, I look at what I am doing to support my students and extend their learning.  One of my favorite classes to teach is Educational Psychology.  This course is a requirement for education majors, but typically taken early in the teacher prep program.  Therefore, most students have very limited experience in the formal role of being a “teacher”.  I work to expand the definitions of teacher and learner to promote the idea that theories from the course apply to a wide variety of situations and relationships.  

This past spring, I took a more careful look at how I use personal application as a way to promote conceptual knowledge.  Through reflective journal writing, I explored how I use personal examples and invite students to connect with their own examples of how the concepts are present in their lives.  Assignments were structured to promote students’ personal application.  A survey was distributed to the students at the end of the term and responses strongly indicated that students perceived that personal examples and opportunities to apply the concepts to their own life increased their understanding. 

 

Every day we engage in the process of being a teacher or a learner; we teach our children, mentor a co-worker, learn from a neighbor… The measure of our own capabilities is in part, how we are able to take what we learn from our environment and add to our own development.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Conflicting Cultures: Ethical Dilemmas

In his books on multicultural education, James Banks describes how we all live as part of various microcultures.   Microcultures are the smaller cultural units that exist within a larger macroculture.  Banks states that while there are “overarching values, symbols, and ideations” in the larger cultural structure, “various microcultural groups…may mediate, interpret, reinterpret, perceive and experience” (p. 56) these ideas differently.  One theme that I have seen emerging from different studies that I am working on is the notion of conflict between different microcultures that create ethical dilemmas for individuals.  

During a focus group study with music therapists, several participants brought up ethical dilemmas that occur when their personal values or ideals are in conflict with the families or institutions they are serving.  One participant described how his institution regularly brings in visitors or potential funders into music therapy sessions.  While the institution prioritizes the need for funding and support, the clinician was concerned about the impact on the quality of clinical sessions.  Another music therapist who worked in hospice care mentioned the concerns that arise when family member have different ideas about pain management then what the clinical team would recommend. 

 

In a different study with frequent visitors at a local children’s museum, one mother described her concerns when she saw other parents that she felt were not engaged with their children at the museum.  She felt that parents should be playing with their children rather than using their phones or other technology.   The same parent talked about inviting other neighborhood children to come to the museum with her family to get them out of the house.  This mother seemed to have a clear idea what children need for healthy development and she experienced a dilemma when she did not observe those same behaviors in other families.  

My dissertation study explored the experience of growing up with a sibling with an autism spectrum disorder.  Several of the young adult participants described tensions with their parents when they felt  their parent was not giving their sibling what they needed.  The siblings faced the dilemma of deciding which family member to support—their sibling or their parent.

 

 Within any large, long standing group, there are smaller subgroups.  As we share a common space with each other, it may be important to recognize the variation in values and ideas that occurs within some of these smaller group structures.  The value and ideas that we have form our sense of right and wrong.  Variations in beliefs can create conflict and other ethical dilemmas. 

Banks, J. A. (1999). An Introduction to Multicultural Education. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.