Young Children's Pretend Play Research Articles

Product-Based Television and Young Children's Pretend Play in Australia

Product-based television refers to programming that implicitly promotes toys to children in the guise of a television show. The aim of the present study was to examine how exposure to such programs might impact on one of the most important domains of young children's development: pretend play. Thirty-six preschoolers in Australia watched 1 of 3 different types of television program (product-based with action-adventure themes; product-based with educational themes; or non-product-based) and were given a range of product-based and non-product-based toys to play with. Contrary to expectation, program type had minimal impact on the overall frequency of pretend play children engaged in. However, compared to educational product-based programs and non-product-based programs, children who watched action-adventure product-based programs exhibited significantly less acts of novel pretense and significantly more acts of imitative pretense. Findings such as this are critical to the ongoing debate surrounding the regulation of television content aimed at children.

Training Teachers to Promote Pretend Play in Young Children with Disabilities

A multiple probe design was used to examine the relation between teachers' use of the system of least prompts, contingent imitation, and praise, and the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of pretend play by 4 children with disabilities. The teachers' use of the intervention package was functionally related to increases in the children's frequency and diversity of pretense behaviors, including related vocalizations. Children also maintained the responses in probes without prompts and generalized them to sessions with a nonteacher adult. The findings replicate previous studies on adult prompting of pretend play and extend the literature by using taxonomy of pretense to measure pretend play, measuring teachers' fidelity of implementation, and assessing maintenance and generalization of children's pretend play.

Assessing different aspects of pretend play within a play setting: Towards a standardized assessment of pretend play in young children

The present study suggests a method with which to assess the interrelations between different types of pretend play. In contrast to standard methods in this area, the various types of pretend play were measured within an interactive play scenario. The pretend play tasks were included in a semi-structured play sequence and presented to young children between 24 and 30 months of age (N = 30). Self- and doll-directed pretence, object substitution, pretence with realistic objects, and self-initiated pretend play, as well as the understanding that an object had been given two identities was tested. The capacity for dual representation was assessed by asking for the real and pretend identity of an object. Age differences were found in the overall score for elicited pretence but not for all items separately. Individual items also differed in difficulty and thus are of potential use for assessing intraindividual differences in pretend play. Findings are discussed in the context of current theories and methods concerning the development and assessment of pretend play.

Normativity and context in young children's pretend play

In two studies 3-year-olds’ understanding of the context-specificity of normative rules was investigated through games of pretend play. In the first study, children protested against a character who joined a pretend game but treated the target object according to its real function. However, they did not protest when she performed the same action without having first joined the game. In the second study, children protested when the character mixed up an object's pretend identities between two different pretend games. However, they did not protest when she performed the same pretend action in its correct game context. Thus, the studies show that young children see the pretence–reality distinction, and the distinction between different pretence identities, as normative. More generally, the results of these studies demonstrate young children's ability to enforce normative rules in their pretence and to do so context-specifically.

Supporting Social Pretend Play in Young Children with Disabilities

Participation in social pretend play has the potential to enhance young children's learning and their social relationships. However, children with disabilities may lack critical cognitive and social play skills for participation in pretend play with peers. In this article the features of social pretend play are described and cognitive and social play characteristics of young children with disabilities which may prevent or decrease their participation in social pretend play are identified. Approaches for supporting the social pretend play of children with mild to moderate developmental delays and disabilities are described. These include methods for assessing play skills, strategies for teaching cognitive and social play skills, the use of structured play groups, and providing related experiential activities and script training to increase children's shared understanding of play themes and roles.

Individual Differences in Young Children's Pretend Play with Mother and Sibling: Links to Relationships and Understanding of Other People's Feelings and Beliefs

50 33-month-old children were observed at home with their siblings and mothers. Observational measures of pretend play, observer ratings of the child's, mother's, and sibling's behavior, and measures of family discourse about feelings were collected. At 40 months each child was assessed on Bartsch and Wellman's false beliefs task and Denham's affective perspective taking task. Results revealed individual differences in the amount and sophistication of young children's social pretend play and suggested that these individual differences are related to experiences in the relationships that young children have with their mothers and siblings. Results also indicated that early social pretend play was significantly related to the child's developing understanding of other people's feelings and beliefs. The data are interpreted as providing support for the notion that early experience in social pretense is associated with children's mastery of the relation between mental life and real life. The importance of considering the relationship context of social pretense is also discussed.

Individual Differences in Young Children's Pretend Play with Mother and Sibling: Links to Relationships and Understanding of Other People's Feelings and Beliefs

Individual Differences in Young Children's Pretend Play with Mother and Sibling: Links to Relationships and Understanding of Other People's Feelings and Beliefs

A Comparison of Social Pretend Play in Young Children With and Without Disabilities

The strategies used in social pretend play were compared for 15 preschoolers with mild disabilities and 15 nondisabled preschoolers in three integrated preschool sites. Children were videotaped for two 15-minute free-play sessions. Sessions were transcribed and analyzed to determine the strategies used to enter, initiate, maintain, and terminate play. Results indicated that preschoolers with mild disabilities participated in pretend play, but that they tended to use more direct and disruptive strategies to enter play. In contrast, nondisabled preschoolers used more indirect strategies. Both groups of children initiated play without discussing roles in advance, and both groups maintained play through short play dialogues. Differences were found in the pretend play themes used: preschoolers with disabilities had less variety in their themes. Both groups of children generally terminated their play by leaving the area. These findings have implications for interventionists, including the need to extend our notion of what constitutes social interaction for young children with disabilities and the need to expand our interventions beyond teaching simple social skills.

Toys and Play Behaviors: An Overview

In the present paper we review the published literature concerning children's toys and the types of play activities associated with them. For example, we indicate that art materials tend to elicit solitary and constructive play forms, whereas dress-up clothes, vehicles, and dolls are associated with sociodramatic play. Realistic toys are more conducive to facilitating pretend play in young children than abstract toys; however, with increasing age, less structured, more abstract toys may encourage pretense activities. Other factors that affect children's play include play space, density, number of toys available, and the presence of familiar versus unfamiliar peers. Finally, sex differences in children's preference for and use of particular toys are examined.

The role of action in the development of pretend play in young children.

The role of action in the development of pretend play in young children.

The role of action in the development of pretend play in young children.

The role of action in the development of pretend play in young children.