Social Pretend Play in Toddlers: Parallels with Social Play and with Solitary Pretend

Abstract

HowEs, CAROLLEE; UNGER, OLIVIA; and SEIDNER, LAURA BEIZER. Social Pretend Play in Toddlers: Parallels with Social Play and with Solitary Pretend. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1989, 60, 77-84. Social play and social and solitary pretend play were observed in well-acquainted toddlers (n = 42) who ranged in age from 14 to 38 months in order to describe a sequence of progressively more complex social pretend play forms emerging from the integration of social play and solitary pretend. Children were observed and videotaped playing with a standard set of toys in their homes during 2 15-min play sessions, once alone and once with a peer. The social pretend play of 19 of the 21 dyads in the study could be scaled according to a proposed scale. Results indicated that social pretend play forms emerged later than comparable solitary pretend and social play forms.