ABSTRACT
Children learn how to play via their experiences and interactions with the people and resources in their environment; thus, play is socially and culturally rooted. Since the 1970s, sociocultural theories and perspectives have become increasingly important in the study of child development and education. Earlier developmental psychology and cognitive psychology approaches, such as those used by Jean Piaget, sought to establish regularities and universal biological ‘laws’ to explain, analyse and categorise how all children develop and learn through predictable ‘stages’. Vygotsky saw the zone of proximal development (ZPD) as the fundamentally important space within which learning and development actually occurred. Within the ZPD, via a process of interaction with other, more experienced members of the community, there is the potential for the child’s existing understanding and use of key concepts, skills and knowledge to be transformed to a higher level. Vygotsky saw play as a crucial activity for development and learning, particularly role-play.
