Abstract
It has long been hypothesized that pretend play is beneficial to social and cognitive development. However, there is little evidence regarding the neural regions that are active while children engage in pretend play. We examined the activation of prefrontal and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) regions using near-infrared spectroscopy while 42 4- to 8-year-old children freely played with dolls or tablet games with a social partner or by themselves. Social play activated right prefrontal regions more than solo play. Children engaged the pSTS during solo doll play but not during solo tablet play, suggesting they were rehearsing social cognitive skills more with dolls. These findings suggest social play utilizes multiple neural regions and highlight how doll play can achieve similar patterns of activation, even when children play by themselves. Doll play may provide a unique opportunity for children to practice social interactions important for developing social-emotional skills, such as empathy.
Highlights
Children’s play is studied extensively, a definition as to what play is has not yet reached consensus
We investigate the unique neural correlates of pretend play relative to other play in a naturalistic setting
29 (96.67%) parents reported that their children used a tablet at home and 22 (73.33%) reported that their child played with dolls at home
Summary
Children’s play is studied extensively, a definition as to what play is has not yet reached consensus (for a review, see Lillard, 2014). We investigate the unique neural correlates of pretend play (in the form of doll play) relative to other play (tablet games) in a naturalistic setting. We collected fNIRS data from 4- to 8-year-old children while they engaged in varying forms of play either alone or with a social partner (i.e., an experimenter) Children in this age range were old enough to follow directions, play on their own, and maintain attention for the duration of the task but were young enough to engage in natural play in these settings. In the chosen tablet games (described in more detail in the ‘‘Materials and Methods’’ section), children cut and styled hair or built towns We included both solo and joint play to examine whether brain activity was different when children engaged in these forms of play by themselves or with a social partner. Our key questions concerned which brain areas would be selectively engaged during doll play, relative to tablet play, and whether this was consistent across the solo and joint play
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