Tomboy: The Role Of Play In Child Development

The role of play in child development has been discussed in Penn’s text and has been shown in various class films. Firstly, I think it is important to acknowledge how important play is to a child’s development. Penn (2014) argues that “play is central to contemporary understanding of childhood, but it was not always so” (p.134). This shows how Penn agrees that play is an important aspect of child development, however decades ago this may not have been true. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has internationally agreed rights and one of the rights under participation rights is play. Penn (2014) states “to play, and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts” (p.131). This shows how every child has the right to play,

For most of the film we watch children play various activities indoors and outdoors. Laure, Lisa and the other children play outside unsupervised. This relates to what Penn (2014) argues that children tend to play with other children unsupervised, often participating in games, which require physical ability (p.137). The children play soccer and various other games in the forest away from the adults. Laure’s parents do not know that she has been passing as a boy for the summer. The mother only finds out when Laure gets into a fight with another boy. Waddell (2002) talks about how parents may blind to who their child is. Throughout the film, Laure dresses like a boy, has a short hair like a boy, but also plays with boys. Families especially parents struggle with the idea that their children may in fact be different from their aspirations (Waddell, 2002, p.134). Also, parents think that children are just playing and do not take their feelings seriously. For example, in one of the scenes of the film we see Laure and Lisa playing dress up where Lisa is putting makeup on Laure/Mikel. This shows the identity crisis that Laure is facing. However, through play Laure can explore and learn about who she wants to be. “Vysgotsky defined play differently, as a kind of mental support system that allows children to represent their everyday social reality” (Pen, 2014, p.47). This shows

After the parent’s divorce Frank’s behaviour and attitude changes, drastically. Vygotsky wrote: “in play a child is always above his average age, above his daily behaviour, in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself” (Penn, 2014, p.47). Frank is acting and behaving above his average age, since he starts to drink beer and uses lots of swear words. In one of the scenes of the film Frank takes a condom and put his mother’s bras and panties on the bed, while drinking alcohol. Frank is embracing his sexuality, but also, he is pretending and imagining, which can be a form of play. Therefore, Frank and Laure are both initiating in a situation where they can act separately from the reality of their