ABSTRACT
Having analysed the genesis of play during the first two years of life, we must now follow its subsequent development, particularly at the levels of verbal and intuitive thought (from two to seven) and of operational intelligence, which is concrete from seven to eleven, and abstract after eleven. But though in the pre-verbal stage play appears in a relatively simple form, being essentially sensory-motor, this is no longer so later on. The first thing to be done, therefore, is to find an adequate classification, since every methodical analysis involves three distinct, successive stages: classification, discovery of laws, and causal explanation. In the field of play, the usual classifications do not seem to be adequate, because they are the result of preconceived theories, and not of purely structural analysis independent of interpretations. We shall begin, then, by examining their practical value.
