Cooperative Play is the sixth and final stage in the sociologist Mildren Parten’s, ‘Six Stages of Play’ Theory which appears in children from about four and a half years of age.
At this stage, children are fully capable of being part of a larger and regular group of playmates, and very capable of moving between one game or play episode to another. Not only are resources and materials been shared out in this stage, but the group ‘rules’ and roles (temporary or more fixed), shared narratives and characters are being acknowledged and contributed to.
That is not to say that all will be hunky dory at this stage – the fact that everyone in the group is now able to contribute to what is being played and how throws up new opportunities for disagreements and fallings out. However, ‘rules’ to prevent this from happening are quickly designed and introduced.
This is the stage in which the shared culture of the playspace is being fully developed; the special terms, words, places of significance, liminal objects and spaces are being set in place and a need for secrecy begins to become important – not to keep what is being played secret from adults, but because reaching this stage forms a bit of a Rite of Passage, and only those that have made it this far are allowed to have all the secrets.
This Cooperative Stage of playing is now the one that will continue to be part of until they stop playing.
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See also the Six Stages of Play Theory, Mildred Parten, Unoccupied Play, Solitary Play, Onlooker Play, Parallel Play, and Associative Play, Liminality, and Rites of Passage (to come)
