ABSTRACT
Children have relished play from time immemorial. Indeed, ancient Chinese tapestries show “the hundred games of children,” although all the children pictured are males. Theories about play and the “reasons” investigators give for children’s play have slighted sex or gender differences to focus on the linguistic, cognitive, and social skill developmental advantages that play offers (Bergen, 1988). Play helps young children clarify and articulate similarities and differences in concepts and categories, including gender. Another major emphasis in studying play has been to observe how peers learn to resolve conflicts through play adjustment and how they learn to understand symbolic uses of materials and toys in creating sociodramatic play scenarios.
