ABSTRACT
The development of play passes through the same stages as the mastery of the spatial-concept; starting with the individual self, it extends its activity in concentric circles of an ever-increasing radius. Sometimes the purely play-motive is joined by a feature of something like sport, and the child tries to surpass his own or others' performances: to jump a little higher or farther, to stand still longer on one leg, and to utter louder shouts. The simplest playthings are objects left unchanged in their original form and only used as auxiliary to the aforementioned body-games: as when the child thumps on the table with a lump of wood to satisfy his craving for movement and his hunger for noise-stimulus. The part played by imitation in constructive games is evidently greater in the case of girls than with boys. Some children refused to play poverty of ideas of their own, or incapacity to carry on the game without help from playfellows.
