Playing dead natural part of childhood says study

Students play dead at a theatresports event. File photo / Hawke's Bay Today

Parents should not be alarmed if their pre-schoolers play dead, according to a study.

Brent Mawson, a researcher from the University of Auckland's faculty of education, studied 3- and 4-year-olds playing without constraints of adult supervision.

His study was completed over the course of a year at a privately owned Auckland early childhood centre.

Dr Mawson found death was a common theme, coming up in 24 per cent of play episodes.

But rather than children having a morbid fascination with death, he said, it was simply a useful trigger to explore the concept and maintain play.

Role-play involving death was usually seen as inappropriate for children, and early childhood teachers had traditionally focused on a physically and emotionally risk-free curriculum, Dr Mawson said.

But the death in play was inconsequential and was simply a mechanism for introducing new scenarios or roles into play.

There appeared to be no real interest in the concept of death by any of the children, he said.

Everyone knew it was pretend, that the dead character would wake up, the monster would be chased away, and someone else would die again tomorrow.

Dr Mawson said there were clear rules about how death was used in play. On nearly every occasion the children made clear it was only a pretend death, and the dead person or animal was always brought back to life, usually through medical intervention.

Rarely did children kill each other in the play scenario. Being killed was only acceptable if agreement was reached with the other person first.

A monster was commonly introduced into play to explain how a death occurred.

Being dead was usually introduced by girls, and girls were more often the dead player, but it was never the main focus of play, Dr Mawson said.

It often provided an opportunity for boys to join in girls' play, with boys assuming the role of the monster or the doctor.

Dr Mawson said parents and teachers should not thwart children using death in play.

"It is important for adults to see play through the eyes of the child and not through the lens of adult perceptions of death."

- NZPA