Forms of vitality play

Abstract

Ever since the pioneering works in psychology, play has been considered a hallmark of childhood. In this final chapter, we present a non-figurative type of play that has recently caught our attention. We have named it “forms of vitality play”, in acknowledgment of Daniel Stern’s forms of vitality concept. Stern posits that forms of vitality are features shared by early social play and time-based arts. We suggest that forms of vitality play can be considered an ontogenetic bridge between them. In early social play parents model forms of vitality through the repetition and variation of their sound and movement, while the baby is an involved recipient who participates with general social behaviors. During the third year in the baby´s life, early social play turns into forms of vitality play: adult and infant play together with forms of vitality, both create sound and movement motifs and embellish them by varied repetition. Variations of motifs are carried out in the spatial, energetic, and temporal dimensions of sound and movement. Our aesthetic perspective – adopted throughout this book – has led us to gain new insights into children´s ability to improvise playfully in interpersonal contexts. Through that perspective, we have also been able to observe that children often combine forms of vitality play with symbolic play.