communication, computer science, and linguistics. Also, dialectical views and theories were a strong part of the child development perspective of the 1980s; these are theories which focus on periods of chance and stability as characteristic of children's growth and development.
In the 1990s, as in the prior two decades, child development theory continues to be expanded and defined. One area of increased interest throughout the 1980s and 1990s has been that of children's play behavior. This area has been increasingly focused upon over the years because research has enlarged the psychobehavioral understanding of the functions of play. For example, it is now known that through play, children learn to use their muscles and to coordinate what they see with what they do; in other words, they gain mastery over their body (Papalia & Olds, 1992).
Further, Papalia and Olds (1992) state that through play, children find out what the world is like and what they are like. They stimulate their senses by playing with materials like water, sand, and mud. They acquire new skills and learn when to use them. In addition, they use play as a means of coping with complex and conflicting emotions. Also, through play, they reenact their real lives.
Because of the increased interest of child development research on children's play behavior, it seems reasonable to suggest that this is a significant and important area of the field. Thus, children's play behavior is the area of child development theory and research that is focused upon in this paper.
Contemporary views of children's play behavior characterize it as an aspect of cognition (Papalia & Olds, 1992). This conceptual framework is derived from the work of Piaget (1951) and Smilansky (1968) who state that in early childhood, children's cognitive development is related to and reflected in a hierarchial sequence of types or kinds of play behavior.
In hierarchial order, this s...