Chapter 9 - Pretend play in young children and the emergence of creativity

Abstract

This chapter examines the evidence supporting the widely assumed relationship between children's pretend play and the development of their creativity. A review of the scientific literature examining this link (Lillard et al., 2013) concluded that there was evidence of an association between these two aspects of children's behavior, but no causal link had been established. However, this chapter proposes a model of a causal link that is mediated by the development of children's representational and metacognitive or self-regulatory abilities. It is further proposed that the various causal relationships between these four aspects of children's development are bidirectional. In support of this proposed mediational model, evidence from recent studies responding to call of Lillard et al. for more research and studies linking representational and metacognitive/self-regulatory abilities to pretence and creativity are reviewed. The chapter concludes with a plea for more detailed observational studies to further examine the causal links proposed in this model.