Pretend Play Research Articles

Parent assessment of their child’s play: A psychometric study on the Pretend Play Enjoyment Developmental Checklist

Introduction: Play is a crucial occupation of children’s that requires reliable and valid assessment. This study aimed to investigate validity and reliability of the parent version of the Pretend Play Enjoyment Developmental Checklist (PPE-DC). Methods: This cross-sectional psychometric study included 10 Iranian occupational therapists from paediatric clinical practice (mean age of 36.5 years) with an average of 14.5 years of experience. Thirty parents and their neurodivergent children (6 girls; mean = 55.90 months; SD = 14.25) and 30 parents and their neurotypical children (14 girls; mean age = 53.4 months; SD = 20.45) participated. Parents filled in the PPE-DC, and a trained therapist assessed children with the Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment (ChIPPA) within 10 days of parents filling in the PPE-DC. Results: The content validity ratio was 1. Content validity index was >0.8. There were significant differences for all parent PPE-DC scores between neurotypical and neurodivergent children ( p < 0.001). For concurrent validity, there were moderate significant relationships between the ChIPPA and PPE-DC items. Test–retest reliability was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.99). Conclusion: The PPE-DC Parent version is a reliable and valid parent’s measurement of their child’s level of complexity of play skills.

Mr. Tumbles’ Maya and the Multiplicity of Personas: Leveraging Illusion and Reality in Educational Game Design for SEN Language Learners

Educational research for Special Educational Needs (SEN) students has increasingly recognised the necessity for tailored approaches that accommodate diverse learning needs. Despite advancements, there remains a significant gap in the development of digital interventions, particularly video games, that cater to the language acquisition and communicative needs of SEN learners. This study explores how psychological paradigms from the popular children's television show ‘Mr. Tumble’ (made specifically for children with special educational needs) can inform the creation of language learning video games. By analysing the use of ‘Makaton’ a multimodal communication tool that combines signs, symbols, and speech the study highlights the potential of integrating similar techniques into game design to enhance accessibility and engagement for SEN learners. The philosophical understanding of Maya, which emphasises the illusory nature of multiplicity, serves as a theoretical framework to understand how a single character can embody multiple roles within a game, providing a consistent yet diverse learning experience. This approach not only aids in language comprehension but also fosters emotional and social development through relatable Non-Player Characters (NPCs) designed to interact meaningfully with learners. The study posits that incorporating these elements can create immersive, emotionally resonant educational experiences and the development of parasocial relationship between the learner and the digital intervention, that better meet the needs of SEN students, ultimately leading to more inclusive and effective language learning environments. Children simultaneously navigate multiple roles and perspectives, each reflecting a different aspect of reality in make-believe play. The critical importance of integrating this cognitive theoretical framework similar to that into the design of NPCs in educational video games is highlighted in this research. The paper argues that the paradigms of ‘multiplicity of mirrors’, when effectively incorporated into NPC design, can reflect different aspects of language, culture, and social interaction, offering learners a more immersive and multifaceted learning experience.

Cultivating the imagination: Caregiver input during pretend play with toddlers at elevated likelihood for autism.

Toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may exhibit less pretend play than their neurotypical counterparts. Previous research suggests that caregivers' input during play influences children's play behavior, and children's behavior may in turn prompt caregivers of differently developing children to talk about play in different ways. Caregiver input about pretend play during toy play at home was examined at 18- and 36-months in toddlers with an older sibling with ASD, who are at elevated likelihood (EL) for ASD (n = 40), and toddlers with typical likelihood (TL) for ASD (n = 12). EL toddlers were classified into three outcome groups: EL-ASD (n = 10), EL-no diagnosis (EL-ND; n = 14), or EL-language delays (EL-LD, n = 16). Caregiver utterances were categorized according to the types of pretend and non-pretend play suggested (e.g., pretending with inanimate objects vs. using objects for their intended function). Pretend utterances were further categorized as related or unrelated to the child's own actions. All caregivers produced proportionately more utterances about complex types of pretend play over time. At 36 months, caregivers of autistic toddlers produced proportionately fewer pretend play utterances, and proportionately fewer pretend play utterances were related to EL-ASD toddlers' actions compared to their neurotypical peers. These findings highlight bidirectional effects between caregivers and toddlers during play. While EL-ASD toddlers may provide less frequent opportunities for caregivers to talk about complex types of pretend play, the current study highlights caregivers' high levels of attunement to their toddlers' play skills.

The evidential BIN in the children’s environment of engagement: Reporting, evaluating, and engaging knowledge in Yucatec Maya

This article explores the role of the reportative BIN in Yucatec Maya language acquisition and socialization among children aged 4 years and above, focusing on their interactions during pretend play. Building upon prior research on caregivers’ strategic use of BIN, the study aims to elucidate the nuanced meanings and functions of the reportative in children’s language. Through a theoretical framework rooted in the theory of engagement, the article posits that BIN serves not only as a linguistic form but also as an interactive device conveying contextual and imaginative speech. Divided into six sections, the article progresses from theoretical underpinnings to interpreting children’s language in pretend play. By analyzing spontaneous speech data, the study uncovers novel insights into the dynamic nature of reportatives, emphasizing the creative ways children employ BIN to engage in games. The findings contribute to a broader understanding of reportatives and underscore the dynamic nature of children’s language usage and development.

Pre-service teachers’ perspectives on the influence of children's pretend play as ‘superheroes’ on their healthy habits

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate pre-service preschool teachers’ beliefs regarding the effectiveness of pretend play with familiar superheroes on children’s lifestyle. The study involved 84 pre-service teachers. All the participants filled in a questionnaire on their beliefs about the impact of pretend play on children’s lifestyle. Twenty-two went further and implemented in pairs 10 pretend play sessions with familiar to the children’s superheroes. A focus group discussion took place before and after the implementation. Consent was sought from pre-service teachers. The questionnaire revealed that they did not believe that they could influence children's habits. The 22 participants stated that the more they used pretend play with superheroes, the more they observed positive healthy outcomes in children’s routines. Future research on media characters can be used to inform the deliberations of policymakers on how they should be used to promote healthy habits.

Linguistic Strategies for Identity and World Building

Over the past decade, the medium of tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons has risen exponentially in popularity thanks to shows like Stranger Things and The Legend of Vox Machina as well as actual-play shows like The Adventure Zone, Critical Role and Dimension 20. Unlike video games and board games, the primary vehicle through which these games are played is language, making TTRPGs an enormous and as of yet rarely explored area of research for linguists and linguistic anthropologists. Participants must play, tell stories and build secondary worlds and selves all through interaction and conversation. Using tools from ethnographic field work, I investigate the features of the register as well as the conscious and unconscious linguistic strategies that are necessary to the function of TTRPGs. I observe and record three TTRPG sessions from pre-established recreational groups both in person and online and broadly transcribe relevant sections for linguistic anthropological analysis. Examination of these real-time improvised conversations reveals their performative nature as well as the conditions required for all players to agree that something takes place in the story that they are building. This paper outlines how players navigate the inevitable messiness and ambiguity that comes with multiple people trying to play a game and tell a story together and how they negotiate agency and control over that reality. Essentially, it considers how adults enact pretend play through language. It also describes the unique participation framework of TTRPG players as writers, characters and audience simultaneously. All of these elements serve to provide insight into this increasingly popular way of using language for entertainment and reveal some of why people find TTRPGs entertaining in the first place.

The Early Pretending Survey (EPS): A reliable parent-report measure of pretense type development for 4- to 47-month-olds

We present a new 18-item parent-report measure of pretense development for 4- to 47-month-olds: the Early Pretending Survey (EPS). Study 1 (N = 231) demonstrated good internal reliability, and a strongly correlated 2-factor structure for 4- to 47-month-olds. Study 2 (N = 587) also showed good internal reliability, and found the two factors loaded onto a latent second-order Pretend Play factor. Study 3 (N = 84) found the EPS correlated with a researcher-led pretense experiment, however it no longer correlated when controlling for age. Additional analyses using subsamples of parents from Studies 2 and 3 showed good inter-observer reliability between parents (N = 29), and good longitudinal stability after 6 months (N = 196). Additional analyses combining Study 1–3 participants (N ≤ 902) found no item functioning differences across demographic variables, including child age, country, and socio-economic factors. Children’s EPS scores increased as they aged; girls had higher scores than boys; and children of younger parents had higher scores. Finally, we examined the age patterns of each EPS item, demonstrating when 25 %, 50 %, and 75 % of children were predicted to pass each pretense type. The EPS is useful for researchers to better understand how pretending relates to other areas of development (e.g., cognition, language). The EPS could also help parents, early years educators, and children’s media professionals decide which pretense types to use with children of different ages.

An examination of the association between neurotypical school-age children’s performance on two pretend play assessments

ABSTRACT Pretend play is an important developmental milestone. Therefore, clinicians need access to validated pretend play assessments. The study investigated the convergent validity between the Animated Movie Test (AMT) and the Affect in Play Scale-Brief Rating Version (APS-BR) when completed by a sample of neurotypical school-aged children. Fourteen participant pairs of 14 children (9 girls, 5 boys) between eight and 10 years of age and one of their parents took part in the study. Children completed the AMT and APS-BR, and parents completed the Parent Report of Children’s Pretend Play (PRCPP). Spearman rho correlations were used to measure the association between each of the pretend play assessments. Significant positive associations were found between the AMT Initiation of Ideas subscale score and two of the APS-BR pretend play factor scores: Organization (rho = 0.571, p = .033) and Comfort in Play (rho = .537, p = .048). A significant positive association was also found between the AMT Total Setup and Preparation Score and the PRCPP’s total score (rho = .539, p = .047). The results of this preliminary study provide preliminary convergent validity evidence between the AMT and APS-BR. Further psychometric research of pretend play scales is recommended.

Efficacy of a Remote Play-Based Intervention for Children With Prader-Willi Syndrome.

The current study examines the efficacy of an 8-week pretend play intervention targeting social-cognitive abilities in children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), ages 6-9. PWS is a rare disorder associated with various social, emotional, and cognitive challenges linked to pretend play impairments, and for which interventions are sparse. Nineteen children were quasi-randomized to receive the intervention or be part of a waitlist control group. Participants who received the intervention (n = 10) demonstrated significant improvements in various components of pretend play, most notably in organization of play, which may generalize to broader social-cognitive gains. These findings provide evidence of the intervention's efficacy in enhancing pretend play skills and related social-cognitive abilities during this critical period of development for children with PWS.

Implementation of Learn to Play Therapy for Children in Special Schools.

Play is the primary occupation in childhood and fundamental to occupational therapy practice. To evaluate a play intervention in special school settings. Pre- and postinvolvement of a 7-mo play program. Four special schools in Victoria, Australia, for children with IQs < 70. Thirty-eight children with diagnoses including intellectual disability, autism, and global developmental delay, 7 teachers, 2 speech pathologists, and 2 occupational therapists. Learn to Play Therapy for 1 hr per week over a 7-mo period. Pre-post outcome measures included children's pretend play skills, language, social skills, emotional regulation, and academic competence. Mean age of 38 children (15 girls and 23 boys) at baseline was 5 yr 7 mo (SD = 0.46 yr). Results showed significant changes in children's pretend play (p = .03), ability to recall sentences (p = .02), social skills (p = .022), and academic competence (p = .012). Learn to Play had a large effect on children's narrative skills (d = 2.72). At follow-up, object substitution at baseline influenced expressive language (p < .001), narrative mean language utterance (MLU; p = .015), social skills (p < .001), and academic competence (p < .001); elaborate play at baseline plus time influenced social skills (p < .001); and elaborate play at baseline influenced narrative MLU (p =. 016), sentence recall (p = .009), and academic competence (p = .001). Embedding pretend play within practice positively influenced children's language, narrative, social, and academic skills. Plain-Language Summary: This study adds to the limited research on play-based therapy programs in special school settings for children with an IQ of less than 70. Children participated in Learn to Play Therapy, during which an occupational therapist, who has observed and assessed the child's play and understands the child's play abilities, played beside the child. Learn to Play Therapy is a child-centered therapy that is used to increase a child's ability to self-initiate and enjoy pretend play. The positive impacts of supporting the children's pretend play ability were highlighted by increases in their pretend play, language, social skills, academic competence, and narrative language after participating in Learn to Play Therapy in their special schools.

Does a high threshold of sensory responsiveness affect the development of pretend play in children on the autism spectrum?

BackgroundAmong the current avenues of research into the origins and development of the autism spectrum, those concerning atypical levels of sensory responsiveness are gaining increasing relevance. Researchers note the relationship of sensory responsiveness in children on the autism spectrum to their motor, cognitive and social development. Current research reports combines the responsiveness to sensory stimuli also with the development of pretend play. Aim of this study was to verify the relationship between the level of development of pretend play and the level of sensory responsiveness in children on the autism spectrum.MethodsA study was conducted in a group of 63 children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum aged from 3 years and 7 months to 9 years and 3 months using: Pretend Play subscale from the Theory of Mind Mechanism Scale and Sensory Experiences Questionnaire version 2.1.ResultsThe results revealed that elevated sensory hyporesponsiveness predicted low pretend play skills in the group of participating children.ConclusionThe study verified the contribution of the level of sensory hyporesponsiveness to explaining the atypical development of pretend play in children on the autism spectrum.

Promoting Reciprocity During Pretend Play in Children with Autism

Promoting Reciprocity During Pretend Play in Children with Autism

Can Preschoolers Learn Novel Causal Rules in Pretense?

ABSTRACT Pretend play is often hypothesized in a global sense to be an effective context for young children’s learning, but there is much still to learn about whether all types of information can be learned equally and whether all types of pretend play are equally beneficial. The present study tests whether preschoolers can learn a simple, novel causal rule from a pretend demonstration. American children watched either one (Experiment 1) or two (Experiment 2) experimenters pretend that a wooden box was a “blicket machine” and that certain blocks were “blickets.” In Experiment 1, performance was compared to a control group who saw an experimenter use the same materials in a realistic context. Results show that participants in the control condition outperformed children in the pretend condition in learning the novel causal rule. Data from both experiments combined revealed that, in pretense, participants learned the novel causal rule when the rule involved block color but not when it involved block shape. These results add to previous research on learning from pretense which indicates that learning novel information from pretense is selective and not always as effective as learning from real contexts.

Digital education through guided pretend play

BackgroundThe importance of play for children and its potential for learning are widely recognized. However, it is contested whether teachers should guide play, particularly pretend play, and how guided pretend play supports children's agency and learning. In this study, pretend play is employed in (unplugged) digital education and the teacher's guidance and children's involvement are examined to answer the following questions: what roles do teachers take on during guided pretend play and how do they enable children's learning about digitalization and digital transformation? AimsThis qualitative study examines how teachers guide pretend play in ways that support learning, focusing on the topic of digitalization and digital transformation. SampleFifteen teachers took part in the study and implemented the pretend play suggestions in their kindergartens with children aged from four to six years. MethodThe pretend play was filmed. The video data were structured and sequences of teachers joining in the pretend play and guiding from within were selected. These sequences were analysed in-depth using multimodal interaction analysis. ResultsThe results indicate that teachers guide pretend play from within by taking on different roles (play leader or co-player). Teachers model within pretend play, for example, by assigning tasks or thinking aloud, and provide scaffolding, encouraging children's learning about digitalization and digital transformation. ConclusionThrough co-playing and leading, teachers support a prolonged and in-depth joint focus, as well as the agency of the children. Such guided play is termed “sustained shared playing” and has great potential for learning.

The Effectiveness of Pretend Play Method Based on Local Wisdom towards Social Skills of Children

Pretend play based on local wisdom is a method that is very fascinating for children. The purpose of this method is to stimulate the development of children’s social skills. These skills are very essential to be stimulated in their life in order to socialize with people around them. However, the application of this method was still very rare in some kindergartens as most to of the teachers there still used conventional methods in children’s learning. Consequently, new methods of teaching were less to be applied in those kindergartens because the teachers concerned more with academic aspects rather than the children’s development. This article presents one teaching method namely pretend play method based on local wisdom to stimulate the children's social skills. The design used in this research was quasi experimental research by using pretest-posttest of non-equivalent control group design. Data were collected through observations and documentations. The data were compared by using t-test in the experimental group and as well as in the control groups. The results revealed that pretend play method based on local wisdom was effective to be applied as the children’s learning method to stimulate their social skills.

Sport Mediatization, Connected Fans, and Playfulness: An Introduction to Parasocial Pretend Play

In consideration of sport mediatization, mobile media, and fandom, this work introduces and outlines the phenomenon of parasocial pretend play. This is achieved by examining the popular television show Ted Lasso, which chronicles the activities surrounding fictional English football club AFC Richmond. Viewer involvement with the show, parasocial interaction with its characters, and social media use by connected fans combine to facilitate this new opportunity for playful collective engagement. By connecting concepts from parasocial interaction and play, the assessment theorizes about and documents how parasocial pretend play transpires. It also identifies factors that may disrupt parasocial pretend play, discusses the potential for its misuse, and details apparent variations of the practice.

Shared Construction of Social Pretend Play Sequences at the Kindergarten.

Pretend play is usually defined as an activity wherein objects and actions (but also affective expression, at times) are separated from their original meanings. Its developmental appearance is set around the second year of life, and increases dramatically in duration, frequency and quality when play episodes start becoming more complex, both linguistically and interactionally reaching its peak in preschool years. To date, however, little attention has been paid to how social pretend play emerges and develops before the age of three. Our study aims to investigate early spontaneous pretend play interactions between children aged 19 to 28 months attending the same kindergarten. We used micro-analytical coding of video-recorded interactions to explore sequences of interaction where children coordinated their actions to engage in social pretend play with objects. Our analyses showed that co-constructed sequences appeared organised by a turn-alternation structure already at 19 months, and children used embodied and material resources afforded by the sequential organisation of actions to dynamically manage their participation. Although explorative, our results seem in line with previous reports suggesting an early onset of social pretend play developing over a continuum from being predominately an individual activity to progressively becoming a co-constructed endeavour.

Preschoolers’ Leadership-Followership Communication in Outdoor Pretend Play

ABSTRACT Pretend play provides enriched environments for multiple cognitive and social purposes. The quality of children’s pretend play depends on the process, including children’s back and forth proposals and responses about the play frames. Proposing and responding to play ideas with metacommunication use, leadership-followership interactions are required in which the leaders and followers are interdependent to effectively move play frames forward. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of metacommunication and leadership/followership processes expressed in social pretend play. A conceptual framework was built on works on leadership development and Vygotsky’s work of pretend play, describing the dynamic nature of leadership process within social pretend play. Results indicate that children’s use of metacommunication varies by which components of pretend play (i.e., imaginary situation, play role, play rule) they are discussing and with whom they are communicating. Results also show how much the factors of interest – use of metacommunication, child gender, and the role of followership – may impact children’s successful pretend play, represented by sustained pretend play with agreement on the play situation, play roles, and play rules by all players involved.

Attachment security and disorganisation at 18 months associated with developmental play level at 30 months

Play and exploration may develop within the child’s early attachment relationship to e.g. their mother. This study examined whether attachment security and disorganisation predicted the developmental level of play as well as the duration of pretend play in a low-risk sample. 64 mother-child dyads participated in an assessment of child attachment at 18 months (using the Strange Situation Procedure) and a 20-minute laboratory play setup including four different conditions at 30 months. Children’s play were coded using the 12 Step Play Scale. Generalized estimating equations showed a significant positive association between attachment security and developmental play level. Further, play level scores decreased as disorganisation increased in a story stem play condition. There were no significant associations regarding attachment and duration of pretend play. Our findings indicate the importance for a secure base that the child can explore from, leading to a more developmentally advanced play.

“You Can Be Whatever You Want to Be” Except for on Shabbat: Challenging the Traditional Shabbat Party

ABSTRACT Within Orthodox Jewish early childhood programs, gender roles of the Shabbat Party promote heteronormative gender expectations that contend with values about children, teaching, and Judaism. Interviews with 15 educators suggested tensions between gender flexible attitudes and beliefs that gender unfolds naturally. Pretend play was considered a safe space for challenging gender, regulated by perceived sociocultural and religious boundaries. Conversely, the Shabbat Party roles were rigidly instituted without much examination of their implications for gender and Jewish identity development. While a few dissenting voices revealed an emerging gender consciousness, the ongoing need for dialogue, reflection, and gender flexible practices are recommended.