The Six Stages of Play Theory was first proposed by the American Sociologist Mildred Parten (1902-1970), also known as Mildred Parten Newhall, in her PhD Thesis of 1929.
Parten’s theory is particularly important in explaining play for it being one of the very few sociology-based theories of development, despite often being identified as a psychology-based theory, and Parten herself miss-credited as being an educational psychologist.
In keeping with similar theoretical positions on play of the day, the ‘stages’ were originally seen as being strictly progressive. In other words, children would become capable of unoccupied play before solitary play, followed by onlooker play, and so on in sequence. This, and a similar tight assumption over the age at which each stage became apparent, are now considered to be fuzzier than strictly progressive, with children often moving back and forth between stages depending on context.
Despite Parten’s original fieldwork being carried out with children under six years of age, and that there is still today a general perception that the stages are relevant only to pre-school children, there has been a shift on this element of the theory too. For example, It is evident that the six stages can still be applied when describing the play of older children.
The six stages are: Unoccupied Play, Solitary (or Independent) Play, Onlooker Play, Parallel (or Adjacent) Play, Associative Play, and Cooperative Play.
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See also: Mildred Parten, Unnocupied Play, Solitary Play, Onlooker Play, Parallel Play, Associative Play, and Cooperative Play.
