High-quality pretend play is an important facilitator of perspective taking and later abstract thought¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r2–r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2002 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Evidence quality · No study behind this claim is a peer-reviewed article with a DOI: it rests on a source with no registered publication record (a web page, book or unpublished report). It is kept because 2 design pages cite it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The research on pretense and theory of mind suggests that high-quality pretend play facilitates perspective taking and later abstract thought. → Bergen 2002

Evidence¶

Bergen 2002¶

Bergen, Doris. (2002). The Role of Pretend Play in Children's Cognitive Development. Early Childhood Research & Practice, v4 n1. http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/bergen.htm

q2 · i? · the article prints no effect size for this finding · review · r2

The review's synthesis of theory-of-mind and pretense research (false-belief studies, Lillard's analyses, longitudinal work by Jenkins and Astington) concludes that "high-quality pretend play is an important facilitator of perspective taking and later abstract thought."

"This body of theory and research has raised many questions that need further exploration; it does suggest, however, that high-quality pretend play is an important facilitator of perspective taking and later abstract thought."

Bergen 2002 (2)¶

Bergen, Doris. (2002). The Role of Pretend Play in Children's Cognitive Development. Early Childhood Research & Practice, v4 n1. http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/bergen.htm

q2 · i? · the article prints no effect size for this finding · review · r3

The review reports, citing Jenkins and Astington, a longitudinal study in which children's theory of mind "predicted the extensiveness" of joint planning and role assignments during social pretense; theory of mind is described as a gradual acquisition from ages 2 to 6.

"In a longitudinal study, Jenkins and Astington (2000) observed children's joint planning and role assignments during social pretense and found that their level of TOM predicted the extensiveness of these abilities."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Social Awareness and Relationship Skills — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• SEL programs improve social emotional skills — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• False-belief training improves preschoolers' theory of mind scores but the review reports it has no effect on language skills — related
• In pretend play the child behaves beyond her average age and daily behaviour — related
• Pretend play and divergent problem solving show a reciprocal relationship, with cooperative play broadly and thematic play specifically influential — related
• Pretend play enactment of stories facilitates narrative recall and expression over shorter time periods but not later unprompted recall — related
• Title I preschool classrooms showed no typical increase in social pretense and verbal interaction over time, most evident in lowest-SES classrooms — related
• Pretense play training improves conservation of quantity in nonconserving preschoolers — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Pretense play training improves gender constancy on the first posttest but not the second — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Play's most important role, per Piaget, is developing representational language and thought through ludic symbolism — related
• Thought and language become increasingly interdependent in the first few years, with private speech evolving into inner speech as self-regulation — related
• Infants and adults automatically take account of others' false beliefs, as shown by looking time and reaction time — related
• Reading fiction gives at most a very small gain on theory-of-mind and social-cognition tasks, and the single-passage literary-fiction effect did not replicate — related
• The home environment plays an important role in early childhood development — related
• Studies measuring the amount of pretend play yield lower correlations with social competence than studies measuring the quality of pretend play — related
• Classroom activities and targeted interventions—peer collaboration, mind mapping, storytelling, and perspective-taking—improve children's divergent thinking — related