Videative Demonstration
Pretend Play: Washing Hands Without Water
When children act out a scene in pretend play they let us know a great deal about their understanding of the physical and social world. Take for example these two girls pretending to wash their hands. By watching these video clips you will see that they understand that washing requires a back and forth scrubbing action, a movement not required when you are simply rinsing your hands or warming your hands. You can also get a sense of their strategies for maintaining the play as a pair. One leads; the other follows. Then the roles reverse without a threat to the progress of the game. Let's watch some of this action. Their words are printed since the sound track at times is difficult to hear. One girl wears a lime color dress (Lime), the other a yellow dress (Yellow). Here is the first part of their conversation. Read this and then watch the video.
Yellow: Shhhhhh (sound of liquid soap coming out of the dispenser). Don’t take it off, just scrub it in really hard.
Lime: I am scrubbing it really hard.
Lime: (reaches for another container) I’m gonna need this one too (pump top bottle).
Right away you see how Lime balances the leader-follower relation. After Yellow advises Lime to rub really hard (advice no doubt heard from parents), Lime insists that she already knows about this requirement of washing. She says “I am scrubbing it really hard." To further balance the roles, she takes the initiative by getting a bottle that Yellow has not used, the second soap pump bottle (Lime: I'm gonna need this one too.)
In this next clip Lime says, as she "shakes" the soap
onto her hands, "I'm gonna make my hands feels good and squishy."
She continues….. "and, and, and…I want that one"
(the bottle Yellow just put down). 
Watch.
You also see how Yellow uses the pepper mill to "shake"
soap on her hands saying, "…should make it all sparkly."
Lime now wants this one, and Yellow politely passes it to Lime,
who says, "Thank you." Watch this last part again.
This little episode continues with more hand washing and sharing.
Lime says, "Yeah our hands are dried out" with Yellow
concluding "Those flies 'cunna dom' back." Watch
the different style of washing in this clip.
Yellow buffs her hands with the peppermill, using it more like
a shoe brush. Lime inverts the pepper mill and cups her hand,
pretending to catch the pouring soap. She then rubs each hand around
the other as if she is working the soap into lather. So you see
one child sort of polishes her hands (to make them sparkly) and the other rubs liquid over her hands.
Pretend Washing can be purchased and downloaded immediately for $6 by clicking here.
What's interesting about this episode?
Gestures... Look at all the gestures the children use to symbolize their understanding of what washing requires; rubbing hands together, cupping hands to catch the soap, polishing the hands with a brushing action. Keep in mind that there is no soap and no water that would give the girls physical clues about what comes next. Their hands are not actually wet or soapy, so they have to invent from memory the actions that are appropriate. They even invent the sound effects of liquid coming out of the dispenser. It is to the children's credit that they can write this script in such detail, even down to stating that imaginary wetness becomes imaginary dryness. Teachers should consider these action scripts a form of literacy, as serious and as important as describing a sequence of acts in words. The action script has to be "written" in detail from the child's mind, similar to an author facing a blank page of paper.
Maintaining the Play as Peers... Look at the way Lime follows Yellow, observing what she uses, then using the object second. But she never relinquishes her own sense of leadership. She defines the end of washing with the phrase "Our hands are dried out." And she supports herself as a peer by stating that she knows all about rubbing the soap into her hands. The two girls also establish themselves as peers via an occasional "thank you" and an occasional "yes" indicating agreement. The play has the elegance of a dance, where the leader senses the position of the follower and vise versa.
Implications for Teachers
Let's say this episode happened in your school. How would your new understanding of pretend play enrich your interactions with these children in particular or other children in general? It would not be a good idea to interrupt the unfolding of these few minutes of pretend washing. But you could revisit the experience later with the girls by watching and talking about the video. Or when they play in this area another time, you might offer them the peppermill and then comment on the form of gestures that they make when they wash. "Yellow, you were moving the brown thing back and forth real hard. And Lime was shaking it into her hand (teacher demonstrates both). (To Yellow): Tell me, what are you doing when you move it like this (teacher demonstrates again)?
In your role as teacher, you want to help children reflect on their own symbols, to think about how their symbols work or do not work from an observer's perspective. Helping children take the perspective of the listener or reader becomes a general objective throughout the education process.
Questions,
Comments, or Suggestions? |
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