During infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood, children engage in a progressive series of play types: solitary, parallel, pretend, complimentary/reciprocal play, and social play. Explain why these types of play do NOT constitute developmental stages

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As the child matures, his or her variety of play types expands. Older children engage in a broader range of play types than younger children. However, these are not stages! For a stage model to apply to play, behaviors of the previous stage are replaced by behaviors of the present stage. Stage models require that behavior remain stable within the stages, with a sharp change during the transition to the next stage. Also, stage models presume that stages are experienced in an invariant sequence, with no stages skipped and with minimal risk of regression to previous stages. The progression of play types does not fit this pattern. With maturity, the child gains variety of play types, but may continue to engage in the earlier types also. Even among adults, examples of the simpler play types are easily identified. For example, many adults engage in solitary play with computer games or with other gadgets.