Investigates whether pretend play is an area of advanced understanding with reference to certain skills that are implicated in both pretend play and a theory of mind, including the ability to (1) represent one object as two things at once; (2) see one object as representing another; and (3) represent mental representations. (MDM)

Analysis (using semantic scoring criteria) indicated that: (1) self-action yielded higher scores on recall; and (2) girls scored significantly higher than boys. When absolute and syntactic criteria were used, self-action, puppet-action, and color, paste, and cut actions were equally facilitative. (Author)

Two experiments assessed preschoolers' ability to understand pretend transformations. Subjects were two-, three-, and four-year-olds who viewed episodes in which either one or two similar props were altered in a pretend fashion. In both the single and double transformation, children demonstrated that they could keep track of the pretend…

Studied children's grasp of make-believe transformations they had seen enacted. Children indicated the pretend outcome by choosing a picture depicting no change or a picture depicting the pretend change. Older children chose correctly, even with the addition of a picture of an irrelevant transformation, but younger children did not. Autistic…

Examines the differences between imagination, creativity, and fantasy, and presents the relationship of imagination to creativity. Suggests that the basic distinction between imagination and fantasy is that while imagination is related to reality, fantasy is related to unreality. The link between imagination and creativity lies in the opportunity…

This article provides a comparative analysis of studies in which symbolic play in children ages 1 through 3 was the major focus of a formal research strategy. The review provides readers with (1) information allowing more effective evaluation of research involving symbolic play and (2) background for designing or adopting play measurement…

Two studies examined 19 preschoolers' ability to distinguish between pretense and reality, testing whether emotionally charged events can cause children to lend probability to pretense. Subjects were assigned to various conditions including termination or no termination of pretense and emotionally colored pretense play scenarios. Found that, even…

Raises concerns about whether literacy-enriched play in early childhood settings is really play. Presents a vignette to illustrate how a teacher can model literacy unobtrusively, thereby enhancing literacy, but unwittingly draw children away from meaningful play activities. Differentiates the cognitive processes involved in play and literacy…

A study examined the cognitive underpinnings of spontaneous and prompted pretend play in 28 children with autism (ages 2-3), 24 children with developmental disorders, and 26 controls (ages 1-3). Children with autism were significantly delayed on pretend play scores. They also had significant deficits in a theory of mind measure. (Contains…

By participating in their children's imaginative play or pretending, parents may be able to understand better their children's feelings, resolve parent-child conflicts, communicate parental values, and build parent-child relationships based on mutual respect. Many people seem to believe that pretending appears automatically in young children, that…

Four experiments confirmed the widely accepted hypothesis that, although children as young as two engage in pretend play, even four and five year olds do not understand that pretending requires mental representation. Children appear to misconstrue pretense as its common external manifestations, such as actions, until at least age six. (MDM)

Through examples of both a child's imagination and pretend play activities, demonstrates how a child's imagination is the thinking function that sets the stage for play, while actual play consists of a child's understanding and representation of reality. (HOD)

Three possibilities for the pathogenesis of childhood autism are considered. Little evidence exists for autism as a basic affective disorder, as proposed by R. P. Hobson, but growing evidence supports childhood autism as a basic cognitive disorder, as the author argues. The author's original theoretical perspectives are revised. (SLD)

This ethnographic study used multiple approaches to try to determine the emotional experience of young children (ages 5 to 8) with chronic illnesses. Forty-six children with severe asthma and diabetes were interviewed on two separate occasions using child-centered in-depth interviews that included play-based interviewing. The study also employed…

This pamphlet is the eighth in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet contains a discussion of the uses of language in…