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Section 9. School psychology
Msc. Majlinda Xhika, Department of Psychology and Education, Faculty of Social, University of Tirana, E-mail: majlindaxhika@gmail.com Prof. Asoc. Dr. Artemisi Shehu/Dono, Department of Psychology and Education, Faculty of Social, University of Tirana, E-mail: art_emisa@yahoo.com
IMAGINARY PLAY, STRENGTHENING THE GENDER IDENTITY AND GENDER ROLE OF CHILDREN3-6 YEARS OLD
Abstract: Play in children has been widely studied for the importance it has in different areas of their development. The aim of this study was to emphasize the attention of imaginary play as an important component of the play in early childhood, as seen in terms of identity and gender roles in children 3-6 years old. Gender identity is defined as a personal conception of his/herself as male or female (or both at the same time) as well as the way we express our gender roles in dressing, behavior and personal appearance. While gender roles are the ways people act, do and say to express if they are a girl or a boy, a woman or a man. The aim of this study is to understand the use of imaginary play in kindergarten children and its importance in the psychosocial development of children. Does this game affect the psycho-social development of children and in what way would be the objectives of the study. Through observation and semi-structured interviews, it was seen that the imaginary play is a favorite activity for children 3-6 years old. During this process, children play or act different roles in a completely independent and uninfluenced by educators of some of the important figures in their daily lives (mom, dad, doctor, police officer, nurse, grandmother, etc.). It was found that all children's age groups were able to identify the gender characteristics of the roles they act during their play. On the other side it was observed the consistency of gender identity, which varied between the age group of less than three-year-olds who did not have a well-formed conception of continuity of gender identity, up to the six-year-olds who had a clearer concept of gender identity and its continuity.
Keywords: imaginary play, gender identity, gender role, child.
Introduction leads to skills abilities." On the other hand, the au-
Stuart Brown, the founder of the National Insti- thors Miller and Almon describe the play as "freely tute for Play, has said: "Play is something that hap- chosen activity, run by children and born from inpens spontaneously, is unintentional, produces joy ternal motivation" Lockhart [10]. Meanwhile, Ouel-and happiness, and with the passing of the stages lette refers to the ability to play as "the activity that is
unrestricted by adult guidance, which does not depend on rules set by someone else but by the child itself." She argues that when children play, they are engaged in activities that they have freely chosen and who are motivated internally Goldstein [4]. Ginsburg argues that "the play is essential because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social and emotional development as well as to the well-being of the child" Jona & McNamee [1]. The play is so important to the child's development that the United Nations and the High Commission for Human Rights (1989) recognize it as a fundamental right Whitebread [11].
Researchers in the field of play and child development have identified some of the main types of children's play that are: a creative play that helps children explore and use their materials to do, to create, as well as share feelings, ideas and thoughts; role playing play, during this play the children begin to apply the internal or external "rules" of the play; physical play involves the development of the children, practicing, refining and controlling bodily movements; imaginary play, including: dramatic play, pretentious or invented play and socio-dramatic play Lockhart [10].
The imaginary play basically happens when kids are playing or play different roles from the experiences they have or something that might be interesting to them. Playing roles as part of the imaginary play may seem a simple activity, but within it, the young children learn practical life skills such as how to trust in themselves and how to collaborate and share with others. The child can play the imaginary play in their own way, can interpret animal noise or play with other children "imaginary play" by developing social skills in this way. Furthermore, the imaginary play helps in eye-hand coordination, spatial skills development, counting, pre-mathematical and pre-reading, is also a good way to express the emotions of a child and to feel safer Leslie [9]. In conclusion, it can be said that there are some types of imaginary play, all of which serve to develop even the imagination of the child, especially his/her cognitive development. Also, the imaginary play serves
to help the child to be enable to experience small situations of her/his future life. Therefore, due to this importance the imaginary play and its manipulation by children, receives a considerable attention for research and observation.
Methodology
The purpose of this study was the importance of the imaginary play in the psycho-social development of kindergarten children. The questions raised in the study were: Did imaginary play be used in kindergarten children? How was it used and were there gender differences while using? What were the gender roles in the imaginary play?, etc.
The methodology used in this study is the qualitative one. The method of data collection is the in-depth interview and participatory observation. Observation was performed twice a week alternately in the three kindergarten groups in a 3-month time period. During the observation, notes were kept so that there was no lose of information.
The approach used in this study is the case study method, so only the children of a kindergarten were studied. As sample of the study there were 90 children of kindergarten 3-6 years old. Observation became alternating in each of the groups present in the kindergarten. In addition to the survey, semi-structured interviews with children were also conducted to gather more information about the issues raised in the study. This interview was often conducted during the imaginary play that the children were playing and this was thought to be the most effective intervention for gathering information on the role that the child was playing. Interviews with children were randomly aiming moments when they were playing imaginary play. On average, 6-7 children were interviewed for each group, randomly selected.
Data and Discussion
This study has provided a considerable number of quality data. The data collected were analyzed using the content analysis method.
Initially was focused on the evidences that took place during the observation of the participants in
the children's groups and the time they spent playing in the imaginary play. It was noted that this was a fun and loving activity for the children. While they were asked to play as desired the children were keen to choose the imaginary play to play.
Through observation, it was noticed that children during the imaginary play identified and performed accurately and coherently the features and tasks of the image that they had chosen to identify during the imaginary play whether in group or individual.
In addition to the physical characteristics, it was
noticed that 3-6 years old children were able to distinguish some of the tasks and responsibilities of their chosen roles, for example: mothers cook, grandfather fixes bicycles, mom washes babies, etc. as well as to distinguish clearly roles that did not belong to one figure or another (eg mom cooks, dad works) based on the experiences that the child has experienced in the context in which he/she has grown up. The accurate identification ofthe roles, eg the tasks executed by the figure chosen by them in the play, and the correct identification of the physical characteristics of these figures are indicative and confirmatory of the role that the imaginary play, plays with children in strengthening gender roles and gender identity. Thus, we can say that through this study it was seen that the children were not only able to identify the gender roles and the gender identity of the character, whom they had chosen to perform in their imaginary play, but also themselves during the imaginary play behaved and acted according to the characteristics of the role they were identified with.
Regarding the gender differences between girls and boys in choosing and playing different figures during the imaginary play it is worth noting that in kindergarten children and girls were positioned in different places. These places differed from the nature and variety of toys they contain. The selection of these figures was made by the children themselves, adapted to the rules of the play they set among themselves when playing in groups.
Children, girls and boys during the imaginary play choose to play the role they fit with their gender by
strengthening during the play some of the tasks and roles of these figures. Girls choose to play a more fragile role as the role of mother, child, grandmother (rarely), educator or sister while boys are more likely to choose to play during the imaginary play a role that suits more male sex like police, doctors, engineer or architects, pilots. It is worth pointing out that even when boys are involved in the imaginative play of girls, they take on a role that fits in with the male gender, for example, the role of a father, a brother or a doctor.
A phenomenon that was observed during the interviews with children participating in this study was the continuation ofgender identity. This phenomenon occurred in the children of the smallest group 3-4 years old. More specifically, the children of this age group were able to correctly identify the roles and characteristics oftheir chosen image in the imaginary play through the imaginary play. What was observed through interviews in this age group is that they still did not have a clear idea that a girl would not become a boy in the future or the opposite, or a boy was not a girl in the past.
From the observation but also from the information received from the educators of each group, it was possible to identify some qualities of the imaginary play from the three age groups and the time they devoted to this type of play. So, we can say that the children of the 3-4 year old group spent more time playing just imaginary play. They can solve their role in playing more than one role (egg, mom and grandmother). What was noticed was that even when children were playing alone the imaginary play, there was a coherence in the selection of other figures they choose to include by assigning tasks that match with their roles and gender characteristics.
While in the 5-6 years old age group, the tendency was for the children to play the imaginary play in small groups, and it is worth mentioning that in these age groups there was also evidence of the relationship that children built with the opposite sex. Each role chosen to be played by children coincides with the gender of the child (egg. a mother could not play a boy and dad could not play a girl).
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