Regulatory Language: Play Analysis

During inside play, Nicholas, Sullivan and Thomas are engaging with blocks. They are using imaginative language when pretending that the blocks are spaceships, however Nicholas and Sullivan in particular have background knowledge on this topic. This was seen when Sullivan stated “look through fis spaceship window”, make whooshing noises and when Nicholas and Sullivan are extending their arms about their heads and pretending the spaceships fly. Sullivan was also able to make connections between rockets and spaceships. During this play, Thomas and Sullivan engage in regulatory language. Regulatory language is used to control the behaviors of others, an example is giving orders (Ronig, 2007; Berk, 2009). This is seen when Thomas loudly states “No let me see it first”, which is out of the ordinary for Thomas as he is a shy and quiet child. …show more content…
A conversation occurred between Sullivan and Thomas when Thomas wanted to join in on the imaginative spaceship play and when he wanted to look at the spaceship. Conversations occurred between Nicholas and Sullivan when discussing spaceships, this was seen when Nicholas suggested building spaceships while Sullivan maintained the conversation by asking Nicholas to look through the spaceship window. Sullivan used sentences such as “These can be rockets too, hey Nicholas” which required a physical or verbal response to ensure they could continue playing. Lillian (4.0) approached the boys asking “who wants to be the king of mermaids?” Nicholas agreed and seems to enjoy participating in a range of different play scenarios. Lillian and Nicholas also seemed to understand the basic social hierarchy positions. With Sullivan enjoying the spaceship play with Nicholas, he was quite disappointed that Nicholas didn’t want to play anymore and this came across in his body language, speech and tone. However Nicholas suggested that he could come be a king as well but was