Pretend Play and Cognitive Development in Preschool Children

Despite the view that it is easier to cite various play typologies, it is cumbersome defining the term. Lillard (2017) suggests play is an absorbing activity whereby young infants take part in with elemental enthusiasm and abandon. On the same note, Csikszentmihalyi (1981) proposed play constitutes “a subset of life … an arrangement in which one can practice behavior without dreading its consequences" (p. 14). Pretend play is more pervasive in infants aged between 18 months and 6 years and is arguably one of the best ways through which these infants learn holistically in their cognitive, affective and psych-motive domains; suggests Csikszentmihalyi (1981).

Through basic interaction with the environment and through manipulation of nature, infants get to appreciate the wonders and awe of nature, making them not only appreciate the environment but also form a basis of learning from environment. The concept of pretend play and its role in children’s cognitive development is not an evergreen subject but one which has been unraveled by different scholars. A study by Vygotsky (1925) exhibited how pretend play contributed to infants’ emotional, social, and cognitive developmental domains, while Lilliard proposed make-believe play is crucial in helping behavioural and emotion regulation.

Jean Piaget maintains in his cognitive-developmental theory that infants actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore the world around them through play. According to Piaget (1962), play comprises the toddler’s quests to manipulate and transform environmental stimuli to rhyme with his/her conceptualisation of nature. Besides, Russ, & Fiorelli (2010) s’ study found early creative play positively correlated to more cognitive performance in the consequential years of development. Similarly, Ashiabi’s 2007 concluded that a school setting where pretend games are largely condoned induced high creativity to infant learners, which further strengthened cognitive capacities. Moreover, Stagnitti et al. (2016) conducted a study on five to six years old infants whereby the scholars concluded that children who directly engaged in play-based environments articulated larger discrepancies in language capacities relative to infants attending traditional schools. These psychologists inclined towards examining the role of play in cognitive development, and how the prospect of play impacted rates in cognitive maturity, with teachers’ role as mere facilitators, offering suitable outdoor and indoor environments for play to thrive.

While there is evidence though, there are limitations with the previous studies. Lilliard (2017) argued that the methodology of previous research is weak, and too many rely on correlations. Additionally, most studies are characterised by non-randomised study designs giving impressions that schools encouraging pretend play have an elevated position in other domains than schools which do not (or that highly-performing children attend those scores). Based on these limitations, the current study intends to explore the question; Does Engaging in Pretend Play Improve the Cognitive Development of Preschool (3-4 year old) Children?; based on the threshold of contemporary literature. This study seeks to substantiate the study hypothesis that children who are encouraged to engage in pretend play will have better cognitive skills than those who are not. Through a systematic review of contemporary literature, this study will focus on approving the ferocity of this hypothesis, leading to logical conclusions.

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References

Ashabi, G.S. (2007). Play in the preschool classroom: its socioemotional significance and the teacher’s role in play. Early Childhood Education Journal, 35(2), 199-207.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., 1981. Some paradoxes in the definition of play. Play as context, 1(1), pp.14-26.

Lillard, A. S., Lerner, M. D., Hopkins, E. J., Dore, R. A., Smith, E. D., & Palmquist, C. M. (2013). The impact of pretend play on children's development: A review of the evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 1-34.

Lillard, A. S. (2017). Why do the children (pretend) play?. Trends in cognitive sciences, 21(11), 826-834.

Piaget, J., 1962. Play, dreams and imitation in childhood (pp. 6–86, 243).

Russ, S. & Fiorelli, J. (2010). Developmental approaches to creativity. In J . Kaufman & R. Sternberg (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity, 233-249. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Stagnitti, K., Bailey, A., Stevenson, E. H., Reynolds, E., & Kidd, E. (2016). An investigation into the effect of play-based instruction on the development of play skills and oral language. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 14(4), 389–406.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1925). The Psychology of Art. Doctoral dissertation.