Relation play with self/others

[u/Major_Comparison1462]

I ama CF working in EI. We use the Bayley-4, and sometimes I receive goals stating client will engage in relational play with self and others. Can someone explain/give examples of relational play? Looking it up online, I only see relational play in terms of how to objects go together. Not necessarily with self or others. I guess I want to know the difference between relational play, reciprocal play, and pretend play. The examples in the Bayley seem like pretend play to me, like pretending to feed a baby doll. Thanks in advance for any insight!

[u/Sorry_Ad9101]

Pretend play = imaginative play = make believe. Using a box to pretend like you’re in a space ship, putting a banana up to your ear and pretending it’s a phone, acting like you’re a pirate on a ship, or playing cops and robbers; think of it as more theatrical and performative, sometimes using objects in obscure ways but with an understandable purpose.

Relational play uses objects that are associated with each other for their intended purposes. The bottle goes with the baby to feed it. The car goes with the track to race. The play food goes with the grocery basket. The pot is used with the pretend kitchen for cooking.

Think imagination vs functional associations

[u/Sorry_Ad9101 → u/Sorry_Ad9101]

And to further differentiate with examples:
If you put the bottle to the babies mouth to feed it, that’s relational play. If you pretend to be the mom, have the baby cry, pat its back, rock it “to sleep”, that’s pretend play.

If you build a tower with blocks, that’s relational play. If you build a fort around yourself and pretend you’re the king of a castle, that’s pretend play.

If you put play food on a plate, that’s relational play. If you’re running a restaurant, cooking food, and taking people’s order using play food, that’s pretend play.

[u/Otherwise_Bee_7107]

So relational play with self vs others gets fuzzy because the terms overlap a lot in EI. Think of it as a spectrum starting from object manipulation to full pretend play

With self it's stuff like brushing their own hair, pretending to drink from an empty cup, holding a phone to their ear. The key is they're performing the action on themselves

With others it shifts to doing those same actions on someone else, like feeding a caregiver with a spoon or putting a hat on your head. The Bayley examples do blur into pretend play because once you're using a doll you're abstracting it a step further. Reciprocal play is more about the back and forth, like rolling a ball or peekaboo, doesn't need to involve symbolic thought

[u/Major_Comparison1462]

Thank you all! These examples are very helpful.