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Young children enjoy very physical play; all animal young do. This play is often vigorous, intense, and rough. You may know this "big body play" as rough-andtumble play, roughhousing, horseplay, or play ñghting. In its organized play forms with older children, we call it many names: King of the Mountain, Red Rover, Freeze Tag, Steal the Bacon, Duck-Duck-Goose, and so on.
From infancy, children use their bodies to learn. They roll back and forth, kick their legs, and wave their arms, sometimes alone and sometimes alongside another infant. They crawl on top of each other. They use adults' bodies to stand up, push off, and launch themselves forward and backward. As toddlers, they pull each other, hug each other tightly, and push each other down. As children approach the preschool years, these very physical ways of interacting and learning begin to follow a predictable pattern of unique characteristics: running, chasing, fleeing, wrestling, openpalm tagging, swinging around, and falling to the ground - often on top of each other.
Sometimes young children's big body play is solitary. Preschoolers run around, dancing and swirling, rolling on the floor or on the ground, or hopping and skipping along. Children's rough play can include the use of objects. For example, early primary children might climb up structures and then leap off, roll their bodies on large yoga balls, and sometimes tag objects as "base" for an organized game. More often, this play includes children playing with other children, especially with school-age children who often make rules to accompany their rough play.
Children's big body play may resemble, but does not usually involve, real fighting (Schäfer & Smith 1996). Because it may at times closely resemble actual fighting, some adults find it to be one of the most challenging of children's behaviors. In spite of its bad reputation, rough play is a valuable and viable play style from infancy through the early primary years - one teachers and families need to understand and support.
Misconceptions about rough play
Teachers and parents often mistake this play style for real fighting that can lead to injury, so they prohibit it (Gartrell & Sonsteng 2008). This play style has also been neglected and sometimes criticized at both state and national levels.
The Child...