Play and Pragmatics for School Aged Children
Play 4 - 5 years
- Likes cutting out and pasting
- Likes working projects - may carry over from day-to-day
- Definite interests in finishing what he/she starts
- Plays in groups of two to five; friendships become stronger
- Spurred on by rivalry in activity, competition
- Interested in going on excursions
- Draws unmistakable human with body, arms, legs, feet, nose, and eyes
- Adds seven parts to incomplete human
- Copies a triangle
- Watches life simulation programs on TV; gains information from verbal contents
Pragmatics
- Uses indirect requests
- Correctly uses terms such as this, that, here, there
- Uses twice as many effective utterances as three-year old to discuss emotions and feelings
- Narrative Development characterized by unfocused chains; stories have sequence of events but no central character or theme
Play 5-6 years
- Copies drawing of diamond
- Copies drawing of rectangle with diagonals in middle
- Draws human with neck, fingers, clothes, and two dimensional legs
- Adds nine parts to incomplete human
- May start collections
- Able to play games by rules
- Builds things with blocks
- Plans many sequences of pretend events; uses props and language to develop a theme (going on a trip to outer space)
Pragmatics
- Narrative development characterized by focused chains; stories have central character with logical sequence of events, but ending is unclear
- Gives threats and insults
- Issues promises
- May give praise
