Sometimes you get gifts you want, and sometimes you get gifts you need. During my time at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I had no interest in the topic of pediatrics. However, the cohort of professors at the time were some of the most elite minds in the nation regarding pediatric physical therapy. Notably, Dr. Suzann Campbell, renowned author of Physical Therapy for Children.1
With no small effort, I absorbed enough information about pediatrics from their studies for me to graduate, successfully pass my boards and even recognize a few more common conditions. One impactful aspect was the discussion on social development, which included Mildred Parten’s Stages of Play.
In her 1929 doctoral dissertation, Parten described six distinct types of play that she observed in children as they developed between birth and five years of age.2 These include:
- Unoccupied Play – Gaining basic awareness of their body parts and movements.
- Solitary Play – Playing alone with no interest in others.
- Onlooker – Watching others play.
- Parallel Play – Playing in proximity of others, but not WITH them.
- Associate Play – Playing with interaction that does not require cooperation (e.g. playground).
- Cooperative Play – Playing in a way that is engaged with both the activity and the other participants.
I’m sure I passed through each of these stages in my first five years or so of life. However, what I can’t explain is why in the following 45 years, I’ve chosen to repeat the process over and over. While cooperative play is the most fulfilling, pitfalls exist that fuel self-reliance and drag me back down the Stages of Play.
Physical therapy is a collaborative game where everyone must play together for anyone to win. This includes staying current with the best evidence to promoting the profession to advocating for fair reimbursement or maintaining maximum compliance. If just one of these factors mattered, it may be feasible to survive at the “associate play” stage where everyone agrees to “play nice” in the same sandbox. The way to have fun playing the game is to know that you can be in your role and someone else is in theirs, and we are all contributing our gifts, whether wanted or needed, in a collaborative way.
Alliance Physical Therapy Partners are experts in areas such as credentialing, compliance, operations, income cycle management, clinical excellence, and marketing, offering solutions to your challenges. If you want to have fun playing the game and focusing on your gifts, consider partnering with us.
- Campbell, et. al. (2011) Physical Therapy for Children. Saunders. ISBN 978-1416066262
- Hughes, Fergus P. (2009). Children, Play and Development. SAGE. pp. 100–103. ISBN 978-1-4129-6769-3.