Imitative play. During the first year of life, the baby imitates the parent. During the second year of life, the child can put together parts of acts already imitated or observed in new combinations. In the third year, children imitate whole roles, such as mother or father. Most of this early imitative play consists of imitation of the important and powerful people in children’s lives. Between 4 and 6, imitative social play tends to be governed by one player acting as a central person and the others acting in satellite roles, by players taking turns and alternating the roles, or by all the players doing much the same thing at the same to. Exploratory play. In the first year, the child explores—touches, tastes, and manipulates. In the second year, the child also empties, fills, inserts, puts in and out, pulls, stacks, and rolls. In the third year, the child arranges, heaps, combines, transfers, sorts, and spreads. Novel manipulations are a delight to the child and can be manipulations of objects or of words. Testing play. In many types of play, what children are actually doing is testing themselves. During the second year, children test their motor skills. They pull wagons, lift objects, climb, run, and jump. As children get older, they test themselves in games. They compete with others to measure their skills, both physical and intellectual. They also test their emotions, such as fear and anger. Model-building play. About age 4, model-building play becomes explicit, when blocks are organized into buildings, trucks into highway trafic, dishes into tea parties. Children begin to put elements of their experiences together in unique ways