Children and Games

Children’s Games, recreational activities especially enjoyed by children. Any attempt to classify them is difficult because of their great number and variety—children enjoy active games as well as passive ones, games of skill and those of chance, games played indoors or outdoors, and games for one child alone or for two or more. Some games are structured, that is, played according to formal rules and generally with prescribed equipment; others are unstructured, “made up” spontaneously as the game progresses (and often prefaced with the suggestion, “Let's pretend . . . “). Word games and guessing games—including lotto, 20 questions, and charades—are also popular.

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PURPOSES OF GAMES

Psychologists believe that the basis of most children's play, starting with a simple infant amusement such as peekaboo, is imitation of adult life, particularly that of parents or other significant figures. Play is thus a learning process and a means of adapting to or coping with life situations. Universally favorite children's games involve pretending to be mothers or fathers, teachers or doctors, or more remote celebrities such as kings and queens, creatures from outer space, or movie stars.

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TRANSMISSION AND DEVELOPMENT OF GAMES

Children's games are spread and perpetuated by this same propensity to imitation, and many of them have long histories. Follow-the-leader, for example, goes back to the 12th century. Many popular games are orally transmitted from child to child, often accompanied by traditional verbal formulas, rhymes, or counting devices (as in jumping rope or ring-around-a-rosy) that vary from culture to culture and may possibly conceal references to events in the remote past. Such games and rituals are, therefore, of particular interest to folklorists (see Folklore). Examples of games played around the world are spinning tops, playing with marbles, and hide-and-seek; cat's cradle is played by Inuit, Africans, and Australians, as well as by European and American children.

Games come in and out of fashion, and new games are constantly being devised. In the late 1970s electronic games, operated by remote control, became favorites of children as well as adults in the United States, while jacks, played by children in ancient Greece, seems today to be unpopular. Some games are seasonal and local; thus stickball, a simplified form of baseball, is played on city streets in the spring or summer. On the other hand, the popular board game, Monopoly, can be played anywhere and year-round.