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COPYRIGHT 2002 ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education
Abstract
There is a growing body of evidence supporting the many connections between cognitive competence and high-quality pretend play. This article defines the cluster of concepts related to pretend play and cognition and briefly synthesizes the latest research on the role of such play in children's cognitive, social, and academic development. The article notes that there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that high-quality pretend play is an important facilitator of perspective taking and later abstract thought, that it may facilitate higher-level cognition, and that there are clear links between pretend play and social and linguistic competence. The article also notes that there is still a great need for research on the relationship between high-quality pretend play and development of specific academic skills. The article concludes with a discussion of the challenges and potential policy directions suggested by research findings.
Introduction
Although play has been a well-established curriculum component in early childhood education, the increasing emphasis on accountability appears to have led to a corresponding decline in the general understanding of the important contribution that high-quality play--especially pretend play--can make to children's cognitive development in the early years. This article defines the cluster of concepts related to pretend play and cognition; briefly synthesizes the latest research on the role of such play in children's cognitive, social, and academic development; and discusses the challenges and potential policy directions suggested by these research findings.
Conceptual Relationships between Pretense and Cognitive Development
Because the development of pretense, receptive and expressive language, and mental representation all begin at approximately the same age (usually between ages 1 and 2), researchers have hypothesized strong conceptual relationships between these processes. Pretend play requires the ability to transform objects and actions symbolically; it is furthered by interactive social dialogue and negotiation; and it involves role taking, script knowledge, and improvisation. Many cognitive strategies are exhibited during pretense, such as joint planning, negotiation, problem solving, and goal seeking. A major question of interest to researchers is whether the co-occurrence of these developing abilities is evidence of a reciprocal or a cause-effect relationship--that is, are pretense, language, and cognition all parts of an integrated, reciprocally developing system, or does children's experience with pretense have a causal effect on the development of cognitive and language competencies? Although the answer to this question is still under study, it is clear that pretense plays a vital role in young children's lives and that the period of its salience extends through the primary school years as well (Bergen, 1998). Recently a "cognitive theory of pretense" has been proposed (Nichols & Stich, 2000), which suggests that there is a "separate mental workspace" within the human brain that can explain the phenomenon of pretense. While no research has confirmed this theory, it serves to emphasize how important the play/cognition relationship is for humans and to point toward neuroscience collaboration possibilities in future research on this relationship. It is more likely that pretend play engages many areas of the brain because it involves emotion, cognition, language, and sensorimotor actions, and thus it may promote the development of dense synaptic connections (Bergen & Coscia, 2001).
Recent Research on Pretense and Cognition Relationships
The relationship of pretend play (especially socially interactive pretense) to cognitive development has long been a topic of research interest among educators and psychologists, and a number of studies conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s supported hypotheses about this relationship. For example, early studies linked play to young children's mathematics readiness (Yawkey, 1981), linguistic/literacy abilities (Pellegrini, 1980), cognitive functioning and impulse control (Saltz, Dixon, & Johnson, 1977), representational competence (Pederson, Rook-Green, & Elder, 1981), and problem-solving skills (Smith & Dutton, 1979). Recent research has explored some cognitive components hypothesized to be strongly related to pretense, such as mental representation ability (i.e., theory of mind), problem solving and other cognitive strategies, social and linguistic competence, and academic skill development.
Theory of Mind Development
The possible relationships between pretense and the development of mental representation (Theory of Mind--TOM) have been studied extensively in the past decade. Derived from the view that pretense involves mental representation (Leslie, 1987) and from study of role-play as a form of perspective taking (Rubin & Howe, 1986), a series of experimental studies using children's understanding of false belief (i.e., inaccurate beliefs held by others) have explored pretense and TOM issues. Lillard (1998) has pointed out that pretense involves "out of play frame" negotiation between players with differing views, simultaneous representation of objects in two ways (real and pretend), role-play requiring acting out others' thoughts and actions, and portrayal of emotions appropriate to varied situations and actors--all of which suggest that pretenders have mental representation abilities. Using experimental versions...
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