Constructive Play

Children’s play with construction materials can render patterns, objects, functional systems, and pretend sequences. Study of constructive play reveals a child’s developmental level, how children learn, and the precursors to later cognitive structures. Methods of study should include a micro-analysis of the process of play. Adults can support constructive play by protecting the time it takes, by asking children to design before they build, and by establishing a social dynamic that encourages risk taking. Animated computer graphics have created microworlds that give children new methods to reflect on their constructive play. Children’s museums also have provided new learning environments that enhance the educational value of constructive play. These new learning environments require their own forms of evaluation.