Bob Hughes developed different types of play for studying how adults learn and children develop. These play types include symbolic play, rough and tumble play, and socio-dramatic play which allow children to gradually explore, increase understanding, act out real experiences, and engage socially. Other play types are deep play, exploratory play, fantasy play, imaginative play, locomotor play, mastery play, object play, and recapitulative play which help children experience risk, gain new information, enhance imagination, develop physical skills, perfect skills, show curiosity, and display human evolution.

1. Bob Hughes
By Sophie and Molly

2. Who is Bob Hughes?
• He developed different play types for the purposes of
adults that study play.
• They are useful in helping us be more specific when
we are talking about play and how children learn.

3. Different plays
• Symbolic play- play which allows control, gradual exploration and increase
understanding without it becoming difficult for a child.
• Rough and tumble play- close contact play which is less to do with fighting and
more to do with physical contact such as touching, tickling or exploring
different strengths.
• Socio-dramatic play- Acting out real experiences, this could be children playing
in a home corner. This could be of an intense, personal, social or domestic
nature.
• Social play- Activities that allow social engagement and interaction for
example; group activities.
• Creative play- Play which allows a new response with an element of surprise,
this could be something a child hasn’t experienced before; making them
aware of new information.
• Dramatic play- Activities where children are assigned roles to act out which
can be used to pretend to be someone/something different than themselves.
• Role play- Exploring ways of expressing different roles for example; dressing up
or playing doctors.

4. Different plays
• Deep play- Play which allows the child to experience an element of risk which
challenges them to develop survival skills/conquer fears. This could be going
on a school trip or camping.
• Exploratory play- Play which consists of handling, throwing, banging or
mouthing objects. This helps them to gain new information and explore the
world.
• Fantasy play- A play which rearranges the world in a child's way, this enhances
imagination and helps them see the world through their own eyes.
• Imaginative play- Play where real life rules don’t apply.
• Locomotor play- Movement in any or every direction with no purpose
therefore they develop physical skills.
• Mastery play- Allowing children to take control of things so they can perfect
there skills. It builds confidence and develops self awareness.
• Object play- Handling physical things including pots and pans in ways that
show curiosity.
• Recapitulative play- where children display aspects of human evolutionary
history. For example, rubbing sticks together to make fire.