Children’s play model

This model aims to conceptualize children’s underlying skills and behavioral elements characteristic of play, as well as the influences that both individual and environmental factors. Embedded in the play environment and cultural and familial milieu, this model includes developmental play capacities (cognitive, physical and social play skills) and individual play style (internal control, freedom to suspend reality and intrinsic motivation) that make up the child’s contribution to the play transaction. Play reflects the child’s cognitive, motor, language and social skills.

The social participation frame of reference emphasizes the power of emotion to motivate and engage children’s social participation. Early relationship with parents provides the foundation for children’s social development, because children give meaning to their own emotions and learn strategies in regulating their emotional states based on how others and environment responses to their emotions. At the same time, the children regulate the caregivers’ behaviors and then they learn how to regulate their own and others’ emotions during future social interactions.

This model focuses on resilience in daily occupations of the mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder, which consists of four categories: (1) creating and re-creating accepting conditions, (2) finding solutions, (3) striving for balance among daily occupations, and (4) thinking about her child’s future. Resilience serves to help the clients in finding solutions to problems and strive for balance among daily occupations. First, creating and re-creating accepting conditions forms a solid base for the client’s resilience in daily occupations.

The Infant Space Theory describes four primary aspects of how infants develop interactions with objects and space in their home environment. The first aspect is through gaze and visual play. Between 2 to 6 months, the emergence of gaze path, gaze search, and gaze alignment allows infants to use gaze path to search, scan for their mother and objects, and to align and direct gaze. They explore out-of-reach objects like moving contrasts and aircrafts, through vision.

The Dynamic Model for Play Choice emphasizes that a child’s choice of play is the result of a dynamic interaction among four characteristic categories, including relational (peers, adults, siblings, cooperation, shared or deferred choice), child (age, gender, ability), activity (level of difficulty, active/passive), and contextual (location, weather). The perceived fun activities with appropriate level of challenge are repeated because of the positive emotion which attached to the activity like fun and happiness and therefore, preference is emerged.