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Child Development & Early Education vocabulary · Play and Learning

Parallel play

Meaning in child development & early education, with examples

nounCommon term

In child development & early education, parallel play means: Play in which children play next to each other, often with similar toys, but mostly do not play together or join in each other's games.

In Turkish: paralel oyun, yan yana oyun

How it is used

Comes from Mildred Parten's 1930s description of stages of social play, which also includes solitary, associative and cooperative play. It is very common in two-year-olds and a normal step towards playing together.

Example sentences

  1. The twins were engaged in parallel play, each building their own tower.

  2. Parallel play is typical for two-year-olds and usually comes before cooperative play.

Common collocations

  • engage in parallel play
  • solitary play
  • cooperative play
  • stages of play
  • playActivity that children choose freely and enjoy for its own sake, such as building, pretending, running or exploring; it is seen as a key way young children learn.
  • turn-takingTaking turns with others in play, games and conversation, which involves waiting, sharing and paying attention to the other person.
  • toddlerA young child who has recently learned to walk, roughly between one and three years old.
  • pretend playPlay in which children imagine and act out situations, use one object to stand for another, or take on roles, such as feeding a doll or using a block as a phone.

More terms: Play and Learning

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