ABSTRACT
Many theories of child development do not include references to storytelling
and play. Theorists usually focus either on an orientation towards a
psychological theory, and reflect the theorist’s own stance; or they are
concerned with observation, such as physical or cognitive skill, and create a
system from their observations. The orientation theorists require that we
accept the given basis for the theory, while the observational theorists
provide us with data that relates tasks to age stages – data that we can readily
observe in our work. Some theorists from both groups include play in their
observations, but no one until Slade (1954) and Courtney and Schattner
(1982) gave a central focus to play development.
