Which type of play involves children using objects to represent something…

Concept — Play is classified by the cognitive demand it makes on the child (Piaget, later elaborated by Smilansky). Symbolic play, also called pretend or make-believe play, is defined by representation: the child deliberately lets one thing stand for another, holding the pretended meaning in mind while acting on the real object. This capacity arrives with the semiotic (symbolic) function at roughly 18 to 24 months and dominates the preoperational stage.

Application — In the situation described, a wooden block is pushed about as though it were a moving vehicle. The child sets the block's actual properties aside and assigns it the identity of a different object, so the block functions only as a stand-in for the idea being enacted. Representation of one thing by another is precisely the criterion stated above, which places this episode in the symbolic category.

Contrast — The remaining categories are defined by different criteria:

• Constructive play: the child combines or assembles materials into a planned product, such as a tower, a completed puzzle or a moulded clay shape. Here a block would stay a block, valued as building material.

• Functional play: the child repeats a simple sensorimotor action for the sensation it yields, such as banging, rolling, or filling and emptying a container. The action itself is the point, not any meaning carried by the object.

• Solitary play: a category from Parten's stages of social participation. It describes whom the child plays with, namely nobody, rather than what the materials are made to mean, so it can accompany any of the categories above.

Result — Treating a block as a car is symbolic play.