i was the captain - children giving play instructions

[swedeheart]

Over here in Sweden when children have an idea on a role they'd like to play (for instance Prince or Princess) and they instruct their mates on the "plot", they always use the past tense, as if the story had already happened. For instance:

"You were a mountain climber and you were stuck on that mountain but then I rescued you cos I was the captain of a hot air balloon and I flew over the mountain and I saw you..." and so on.

I've always wondered what the past tense is about - if it's a reflection of having already seen the story enacted in your own imagination? ...but that doesn't really seem right cos the way I remember myself giving instructions as a child, the story unravelled even as I spoke, the better part of the story I had NOT "seen" in my head before starting to hand out instructions.

My question is, do English children (or wherever you are and whatever language you speak) also express instructions for play in the past tense, and if so, what's your theory about why they do that.

[mollykins]

i remember me and my friends talking about it in the future tense, scene by scene, then acting it out until we had to decide what happened next.

[swedeheart]

Hi mollykins. So in your case that would have been "I will be the captain and you will be a mountain climber and I will rescue you" ? Or "I am going to be..." et cetera?

[mollykins]

yeah, we talked about what would happen, then do it.

[ummmm]

It's not something I have ever thought about but now you say it I think I played in past tense. So it must be that we've already seen the scene in our tiny little heads.

[swedeheart]

Hi ummmm. Yes IF it's the same for all languages, that must be it. (But what about mollykins...)

[cazzz1975]

I suppose after some thought they are recanting a story that they thought about a few minutes before, this could make the actions deemed as in the past tense, In their minds the story being recited has already happened, in their heads anyway :)

[ummmm]

Not sure but she's very young still....

Maybe we remember it differently as we get older...

[puternut]

My (dim) memor of childhood in the 60's seems to recall we played in the present tense - 'you are the formula one racing driver and I'm your team mate' - or from another team - and then with little or no script we developed the play from there with nothing barred unless it was too outlandish

Hmm interesting point

[mollykins]

But i remember once, when harry potter first came out, we reinacted some scenes and we probably did those in the past tense, as we already knew what happened. That day sticks out in my mind because i remember two people getting into a fight and trouble as they were jabbing each other with twigs that they were hoping were magical.

[sophie_1003]

I've seen both, children will usually plan their role play in a mixture of present and future tense e.g. "You be the doctor and I'll be the mummy and this is my baby" but when playing will adapt it in past tense e.g. "No, because you were naughty so you didn't get any dinner" But I suppose it depends on the age of the child.

[swedeheart]

Hi cazzz. Yes and I suppose the mission of this question is to establish whether or not children all over the world use the past tense, in their respective languages.

LOL ummmm.

Puternut so now we've got past, future and present - curiouser and curiouser! And very interesting.

mollykins yes that's a good point, plays are of course often inspired by books and films.

[swedeheart]

Ah yes Sophie, that sounds familiar! I don't have any kids myself and none around but I definitely recognise that, in Swedish too. And the age point is probably a valid one as well.

[sophie_1003]

Play is very contextualised, so I think you have a valid point with language, you may even find that children in some cultures don't play in the terms of how western society defines it so the question of how they plan imaginative play may be a moot point.

[swedeheart]

Sounds very interesting Sophie, what are those cultures and what is their equivalent of play?

[sophie_1003]

I could go on forever about play and different cultures attitudes to it so will just give an example- in Bangladeshi cultures children are expected to help out with stuff like setting the table, washing up and stuff, this is done for 'real' and not as an imitation of what mummy does. In English families however, children (at least the younger ones) will not be expected to do this, they will 'help' but this is usually done as play and is not actually seen as very helpful by the parent who usually has to re-do whatever it is the child has done.
Really it is more about adult's attitudes to play rather than children's experiences.

[swedeheart]

See what you mean Sophie but surely Bangladeshi (to use your example) kids will still play on *other* topics than the more prosaic ones? (I'm not arguing, I'm just asking you.)

[sophie_1003]

Oh yes definitely, all children play, in that way it does transcend cultures. But I'm not sure that scripts are used so much in all cultures, they may be but in cultures where a child is only a child until they are say 6 or 7 can't see that scripts would have developed by this age to the sophisticated things they are in Western society where children may play imaginatively until they are 12 or older.

[swedeheart]

Sophie, many moons ago I studied some developmental psychology and I seem to recall that the ability to put yourself in somebody else's shoes (to understand that I am I and you are you) is present from age four and is explored in role-play from that age on. Elaborated scripts however may come later, I don't really remember... It's an interesting topic at any rate and I thank you all for your replies so far:)

[swedeheart]

(Should have said "I am I and you are you and this potentially means that I too can be somebody else, i.e. I can choose the part which to play in life".)

[karenmac60]

I remember always playing in the present tense - although we always started our sentences with 'make it' as in 'make it I'm the captain'. This way we were stepping out of our roles in the game - anything said without 'make it' in front was spoken by the character we were playing whereas anything with 'make it' was said by ourselves and was an instruction as to what was going to happen next - although it was said in present tense.