ABSTRACT
From the beginning of history, children have played. They have played alone or with other people, sometimes with adults, more often with other children. Philippe Aries argues that until the 1600s, European adults and children often played the same games: no distinction was made (Ariès, 1962). Children have played with toys, games, animals, and found objects. Among the earliest toys are dolls, balls, pull or push toys on wheels, and miniature boats. Children have engaged in both indoor and outdoor sports activities. Children have invented, or learned and recited, riddles, rhymes, songs, and verse; they have collected and traded objects that they prize; and they have joined in festivals and special celebrations. Play activities, sometimes varying from culture to culture, are often a function of a childs age, gender, and socioeconomic position, but can be seen as the “natural right” of childhood.
