Play Personalities

Play Personalities

Play is a child’s work; it is what they are born to do and how they explore and learn about their world (O’Neil, D.). By engaging in play with your child, not only are you showing them you value the importance of play, but you are also sharing their interests and enjoyment, and even learning a little bit more about their play personality!

Play personality? What is that?

There are 8 play personalities. While we may be a mix of these, we usually have 1 play personality that is most dominate. Knowing your child’s play personality will help you to identify the activities that will bring the most joy into your child’s life (Verma, P. 2018)!

Below are the 8 play personalities and some ideas as to how to provide opportunities to explore their play personality.

• The Joker: loves making people laugh, playing practical jokes. Ideas for play for a joker: make people laugh through puppet shows or performances, tell jokes.  
• The Kinesthete: loves to play by moving their body. Ideas for play for a kinesthete: provide resources to create an obstacle course, music and scarfs for dancing, bean bags for balancing on different parts of their body, go on a walk, play sport.
• The Explorer: loves to discover new things (physical, mental, emotional). Ideas for play for an explorer: research something of interest (book, flash cards, puzzles), go on an adventure to somewhere new, go on a scavenger or nature hunt (searching for things in your garden, local park or even the sky!).
• The Competitor: loves to play to win or beat records (individually or as a team). Ideas for play for a competitor: create your own board game or card game, play a board game or a card game, race to complete a puzzle, races to find something around the house (colour, letter, number).
• The Director: loves to plan and organise events. Ideas for play for a director: give them options and encourage them to choose and lead the play (e.g. set up a picnic for their teddies, plan what they need, write a list).
• The Collector: loves to collect things. They will often have the most amazing collections and like to organise them. Ideas for play for a collector: go on an adventure an collect some treasures (leaves, shells, rocks), provide resources to organise and store their collections.
• The Artist/Creator: loves to create! Ideas for play for an artist/creator: set up an art station which they can access when they choose to do so, change the materials available or a regular basis, provide different sensory bases to create with (play dough, coloured rice, pasta, chickpeas).
• The Storyteller: loves using their imagination to go on adventures. This may be performing, writing, or telling stories. Ideas for play for a storyteller: provide puppets to create their own stories, provide resources to create their own characters (puppets, pictures) which can be used in their story telling, blank books, surround them with a variety of literature (Verma, P. 2018).

In fact, not only do children have a play personality, but so do adults! “You may think playing is for kids. You may believe playing is optional as an adult. But the reality is, you need play. It’s like food for your soul” (Verma, P. 2018). I wonder if, while reading this post you have figured out your play personality. Is it the same as your child’s or different? Do you have a dominant one, or multiple? They may be the same as they were when you were a child, or it may have changed completely! What is your play personality and what do you do to keep it in your life?

“The most successful adults maintain the ability to play” (Shonkoff, J. 2019)

References

O’Neill, D. ‘What is Play?’, 07.09.2021 [https://www.playaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/LibraryDownloads/What%20is%20Play%20Diana%20ONeill.pdf]

Shonkoff, J. 2019. ‘Playful quotes for the child in your heart’, 08.08.2021 https://www.vincegowmon.com/playful-quotes-for-the-child-in-your-heart/

Verma, P. 2018. ‘What’s your play personality? The 8 play personality types’, 07.09.2021 https://medium.com/swlh/whats-your-play-personality-the-8-play-personality-types-69d798ef0863

Written by:

Kathleen Johansen, Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood 3 – 8 years)

https://www.instagram.com/one.busy.mumma/