A more interactive type of play concerns parallel
play. Here, the child mimics other children's play, or uses the same material,
but does not actively engage. Consequently, in its social development, the
moment the child becomes less egocentric and is able to emphatize with
others, associative play comes into being. Here, for the first time, the child
becomes more interested in the (playing-) person itself than in its toys. This
category involves a first form of social interaction. Concurrent with their
social emotional development (theory of mind), once the child involves and
interacts actively with others, it engages in cooperative play. Here, playing is
intentional, directed at others and the child adopts roles and acts in a group.
(Feldman, 1997, Xu, 2010)