Mildred parten theory

1929 theory about children by Mildred Parten Newhall

Stages of play is a theory and classification of children's participation in play developed by Mildred Parten Newhall in her 1929 dissertation.^[1] Parten observed American preschool age (ages 2 to 5) children at free play (defined as anything unrelated to survival, production or profit).

Parten recognized six different types of play:

• Unoccupied (play) – when the child is not playing, just observing. A child may be standing in one spot or performing random movements.^[2]
• Solitary (independent) play – when the child is alone and maintains focus on its activity. Such a child is uninterested in or is unaware of what others are doing. More common in younger children (age 2–3) as opposed to older ones.^[1][2][3]
• Onlooker play (behavior) – when the child watches others at play but does not engage in it.^[2] The child may engage in forms of social interaction, such as conversation about the play, without actually joining in the activity.[3
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  Mildred Bernice Parten Newhall (August 4, 1902 – May 26, 1970) was an American sociologist, a researcher at University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development. She completed her doctoral dissertation in 1929. In it she developed the theory of six stages of child's play, which led to a series of influential publications. She was married to Sidney Newhall, a researcher for Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York. Mildred Parten Newhall was a research associate in psychology at the University of Rochester and died in 1970.

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  ميلدريد بيرنيس بارتن نيوهول (4 أغسطس 1902-26 مايو 1970) عالمة اجتماع أمريكية، باحثة في معهد تنمية الطفل بجامعة مينيسوتا. أكملت رسالة الدكتوراه عام 1929. طورت فيها نظرية المراحل الست للعب الأطفال، مما أدى إلى سلسلة من المنشورات المؤثرة. (ar) Mildred Bernice Parten Newhall (August 4, 1902 – May 26, 1970) was an American sociologist, a researcher at University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development. She completed her doctoral dissertation in 1929. In it she developed the theory of six stages of chi • Mildred Parten and her Six Stages of Play Born in America in 1902, Mildred Parten grew up at an exciting time for the studies of sociology, psychology and child development. A contemporary of Jean Piaget and Leo Vygotsky, Parten was a sociologist at heart and a researcher at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development (previously called the Institute of Child Welfare), where she worked on and completed her doctoral dissertation in 1929. This work led her to develop her theory on the six stages of child’s play. Her ideas were groundbreaking and her stages are still influential today. Perhaps surprisingly, little seems to be known, or recorded, about Mildred Parten as a person, but as a sociologist it is safe to say that she had a deep interest in people and how groups of individuals interact with each other. A forerunner in the observation of children, Parten based her doctorate on the relationship between play and social development in the pre-school years. Using observations carried out between October 1926 and June 1927 at the Nursery School Copyright ©froughy.pages.dev 2025