Features of Children's Play and Developmental Possibilities of Symbolic Puppet Play

In the first part of the paper we present different theoretical views on children's play as wel as features of children's behavior while at play. According to Kooij and Mayjes (1986), two basic aspects of exploring the concept of play can be distinguished: cognitive and affective play concept. Regarding the direction of the individual play concept, features of children's behavior while at play are indicated too. The following three parts of the paper will explain developmental possibilities of children's puppet plays. In a puppet play, many manners of behavior can be seen according to the concepts of play mentioned above. In the last part of the paper we analyze the relationship between children's play, creation and art. Many authors notice the connection between play and art-because both of these fields lead to establishing an independent, self-defining form of behavior as a basic feature of creativity, i.e.of children's play.