Promotion of Pretend Play for Children with High-Functioning Autism Through the Use of Circumscribed Interests

The purpose of this paper is to describe effective methods of developing pretend play that is intrinsically motivating for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using the topic of circumscribed interests. Children with ASD often develop very specialized interests, known as Circumscribed Interests (CI). However, their limited and intense interests are often perceived by others, especially by parents, as interfering with their learning and social interactions with others. This paper reports how one parent fostered pretend play in her preschool child with autism based on his CI in “trains.” Four steps for promoting pretend play for preschool children with autism using their topic of interest are presented. These include (1) Creating a web, (2) Modeling pretend play through use of divergent materials, (3) Modeling verbal interaction in pretend play, and (4) Providing theme boxes and field trips/excursions. The author concludes that the four steps are useful for not only fostering their active involvement in pretend play, but also in helping their topic of special interest expand into a wide range of pretend play. In addition, creating webs based on CI may enable caregivers or teachers to intentionally provide meaningful experience with specific outcomes in mind for children with autism.     

Indonesian Children's Play with Their Mothers and Older Siblings

30 Indonesian children were observed and videotaped on 2 separate occasions while playing with toys to promote imaginative play with their mothers and older siblings. Play episodes were examined for level of play with objects, mutual involvement in social and cooperative social pretend play, maternal and sibling play behaviors, and thematic content. Mothers were interviewed about children's play. Results showed that level of object play and mutual involvement in cooperative social pretend play increased with age. Pretend play with objects and cooperative social pretend play were more frequent with older siblings than with mothers. Older siblings were more actively involved in play activities than were mothers. Siblings joined their younger partners' play activities and made comments and suggestions for pretend play. The findings suggest that older siblings can be effective facilitators of pretend play with young children. The results also show how the sociocultural context shapes children's early play behavior with different partners.     

儿童假扮游戏中的认知技能发展

假扮游戏伴随着儿童认知技能的发展而发展,儿童只有具备必要的认知技能才能参与假扮游戏.与假扮游戏有关的认知技能主要包括社会参照、解读意图、现实与假扮世界分离、符号化假扮、角色扮演等.假扮游戏的发展与儿童认知技能的发展是一个交互作用的过程.     

Links Between Preschool Children’s Social Skills and Observed Pretend Play in Outdoor Childcare Environments

As one of the most advanced play forms in childhood, pretend play often demonstrates positive associations with children’s development. However, results from research that examines the association between social skills and pretend play are mixed, especially when the complexity of pretend play is taken into account. Moreover, few studies on pretend play are conducted in outdoor environments; a setting which affords many opportunities for engagement in pretend play and unstructured social interactions. By observing children’s outdoor pretend play, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between different types of pretend play and children’s social skills. Twenty-eight children from high quality childcare centers in a southeast suburban area were observed during outdoor free play time. Using a reliable time sampling protocol, each child’s play was observed and recorded for a total of 45 min to an hour over a 2-week time period. Lead teachers rated children’s social skills in the areas of cooperation, self-control, and assertiveness. Results showed high amounts of pretend play behavior overall, and differential relationships between the type of pretend play children engaged in and children’s social skills. Surprisingly, these relationships were not associated with gender. Findings are discussed in light of the value of pretend play to promote social skill development and the potential for outdoor contexts specifically to encourage these play behaviors.     

Development of self-recognition, personal pronoun use, and pretend play during the 2nd year

This study examined the relation of visual self-recognition to personal pronoun use and pretend play. For a longitudinal sample (N=66) at the ages when self-recognition was emerging (15, 18, and 21 months), self-recognition was related to personal pronoun use and pretend play such that children showing self-recognition used more personal pronouns and demonstrated more advanced pretend play than did children not showing self-recognition. The finding of a relation among these measures provides additional evidence that in the middle of the 2nd year of life a metarepresentation of self emerges in the human child.     

Relationship between imaginative play and language development in hearing-impaired children

The relationship between imaginative play and language development was investigated in a group of 20 severely and profoundly hearing-impaired children between the ages of 3 and 6. Each child was videotaped in a 60-minute session interacting with the investigator and playing with three sets of toys: a miniature house, barn, and garage. Analysis of the subjects' language revealed that 15 were operating in Brown's (1973) Stage 1, one in Stage 3, and four in Stage 5. Play was analyzed along three dimensions: (a) percentage of time engaged in imaginative play; (b) use of planned pretend; and (c) use of story line. A significant relationship was found between imaginative play and language development. Results revealed no relationship between imaginative play and chronological age. Correspondences were found between language development and use of planned pretend and story line.     

Through race-colored glasses: Preschoolers’ pretend play and teachers’ ratings of preschooler adjustment

This study investigated relations between preschoolers’ pretend play, examiner-rated adjustment, and teachers’ reports of educational and social adjustment in a large and racially diverse sample. Preschoolers (N = 171; M_age = 49.25 months, SD = 2.76; 89.5% non-White; 50.9% female) completed a standardized assessment of pretend play during a laboratory visit and teachers rated their academic and relational adjustment 3 months later. Interactive effects by child race were evaluated in light of prior suggestions that relations between children's creative expression and teacher-rated adjustment may vary by child race. There were no significant race differences in observers’ ratings of preschoolers’ pretend play, examiners’ ratings of child adjustment, or teachers’ ratings of child adjustment. Imaginative and expressive play features were positively related to examiners’ ratings of child ego-resilience for all children in the laboratory setting. However, child race moderated relations between these same play features and teachers’ ratings of preschooler adjustment in the classroom, even after child age, child IQ, family socioeconomic status, teacher–child racial congruence, teacher familiarity with the child, and child gender were held constant. Among Black preschoolers, imaginative and expressive pretend play features were associated with teachers’ ratings of less school preparedness, less peer acceptance, and more teacher–child conflict, whereas comparable levels of imagination and affect in pretend play were related to positive ratings on these same measures for non-Black children. These results suggest that teachers may ascribe differential meaning to child behaviors as a function of child race. Implications for child development, teacher training, and early education are discussed.     

Spinning fantasy: themes, structure, and the knowledge base

The influence of the child's knowledge base, in terms of event schemas, on symbolic play behavior was investigated. The pretend play behavior of 10 mother-child (2-0 to 2-4) dyads was observed in 2 play contexts. Play was examined for thematic content and the following structural components: self-other relations, substitute/imaginary objects, action integration, and planfulness. The highest levels of symbolic play behavior emerged in pretense episodes whose thematic content was event based. Additionally, thematic content affected the respective roles of mother and child in the construction of pretense. In pretense activity based on themes with which the child was familiar (e.g., routine events), the child, as well as the mother, participated in advanced levels of symbolic play activity, coconstructing pretense. In pretense based on themes unfamiliar to the child, the mother was almost exclusively responsible for the pretense. Thus, the development of child symbolic play appears to be related to the knowledge base in that its emergence is domain-specific--limited to themes for which the child has knowledge--before being more widely manifested.     

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.     

Examining How and Why Children in My Transitional Kindergarten Classroom Engage in Pretend Gunplay

This self-study of pretend gunplay in my Transitional Kindergarten (TK) classroom was designed to guide me in not only improving my practice within the classroom, but also informing the development of sound classroom policies related to pretend gun-and-weapons play that balance children's developmental needs with my commitment to peace and conflict resolution. The participants in this study include 17 children in my TK classroom in Northern California, but the focus is on 8 students. Data for this study were collected through brief student interviews, audio-recorded classroom discussions, videotaped play, observations, and photographs, which were then analyzed through first and second cycle coding and grouped into significant patterns and common themes. This study allowed me to recognize the different types of pretend gunplay in my classroom, the types of play that induce conflict versus cooperative play, and the specific social needs of my students that are being met through their pretend gunplay. These findings allow me to respond effectively and critically to the developmental needs of my students while being able to recognize the topics that typically occur in pretend gunplay.     

The evolutionary significance of pretend play: Two-year-olds’ interpretation of behavioral cues

Pretend play begins very early in human life. A key question is why, when figuring out reality is young children’s major developmental task, they engage in its deliberate falsification. A second key question is how children know that pretend events are not real. Here we report three experiments addressing the latter question and providing indirect evidence for speculation on the first question. Children (N = 96) were shown actors eating or pretending to eat from covered bowls, and they had to indicate, on the basis of the actors’ behavioral signs, which actor was pretending to eat or had the real food. Even 24-month-olds could do so when the contents of the bowls were shown before the actions, and even when substitute objects were shown. However, when one of the bowls contained imaginary objects (i.e., was empty), even 30-month-olds could not indicate which actor was pretending. These studies show how the ability to interpret pretending from behavioral cues develops gradually as children’s representational abilities become more free of contextual support. We propose that, from an evolutionary and ontogenetic standpoint, pretend play might serve to heighten children’s sensitivity to social signs. This sensitivity could assist the development of theory of mind, with which social pretend play is associated. In this way, pretend play in humans might serve a similar purpose to play fighting in other species: In both cases, play might sensitize the organism to social signs that will allow for sophisticated coordination of social behavior later in life.     

Ventriloquism as early literacy practice: making meaning in pretend play

This article discusses how children in New Zealand make meaning in their spontaneous pretend play from kindergarten (four years old) through to their first year of primary school (five years old). The findings discussed here are taken from a wider project investigating children’s storytelling where 12 child participants were video recorded during their everyday storytelling experiences over a three-year period. This article reveals how children’s engagement in pretend play often involves playing out an impromptu storyline where ventriloquism is used to talk objects into life through paralinguistic features such as gesture, gaze and voice prosody. These findings suggest that through the act of ventriloquism in pretend play children learn to engage in complex meaning making activities in playful ways, orally formulating characters and building coherent and systematic storylines that can be identified as early literacy practices.     

Emotional Competence, Emotion Socialization, and Young Children's Peer-Related Social Competence

This study investigated linkages between aspects of emotional competence and preschoolers' social skills with peers. Whether parental emotion socialization practices contributed to the prediction of social skill once emotional competence was statistically controlled was also of interest. Eighty-one predominantly Caucasian preschoolers were videotaped as they participated in three same-sex triadic peer situations. Four peer variables were coded from the videotapes: social initiations, the frequency with which children were the targets of positive social bids, non-constructive anger-related reactions, and prosocial acts. The emotional competence measures included situation knowledge, children's explanations of emotions, positivity of emotional expression during peer play, and emotional intensity. Maternal anger directed at the child was the measure of emotion socialization. Results revealed that the emotional competence variables were meaningfully related to the peer variables and that, for non-constructive anger reactions, maternal reports of anger explained unique variance. Results are discussed in terms of how emotional competence and emotion socialization contribute to peer behavior and the importance of designing and implementing affective intervention programs for young children and their families.     

Cultural Differences in Korean- and Anglo-American Preschoolers' Social Interaction and Play Behaviors

48 Korean- and 48 Anglo-American children were observed in their preschool settings to examine the role of culture in organizing children's activities and in shaping their pretend play behavior. Observers recorded the presence or absence of preselected social behaviors and levels of play complexity. Parents completed a questionnaire about play in the home, teachers rated children's social competence, and children were given the PPVT-R and a socio-metric interview. Korean parents completed an acculturation questionnaire. The findings revealed cultural differences in children's social interaction, play complexity, adult-child interaction and play in the home and in the preschool, adult beliefs about play, scores on the PPVT-R, and children's social functioning with peers. The results suggest that children's social interaction and pretend play behavior are influenced by culture-specific socialization practices that serve adaptive functions.     

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.     

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.     

Pretend play by African American children in head start

Play behaviors of African American 4-year-olds from impoverished families were observed naturalistically. Children's free play was videotaped in Head Start classrooms over several weeks in the playhouse, block corner, and outside play yard. Play was categorized into cognitive play types—functional, constructive, and pretend play. Children most frequently engaged in functional play. Contrary to Smilansky's findings, impoverished children also engaged in pretend play. This play type was high in quality (object use, number of participants, and subtypes of pretense exhibited) but low in quantity (number and duration of play episodes) compared to other types of play. These findings are discussed in the context of theories of pretend play.     

Effect of School Pretend Play on Preschoolers’ Social Competence in Peer Interactions: Gender as a Potential Moderator

This study investigated the moderating effect of gender on the causal relationships between different school play activities (pretend and non-pretend play) and social competence in peer interactions among a sample of Hong Kong children. Participants were 60 Hong Kong preschoolers (mean age = 5.44, 36.67 % female). Children with matched home pretend play time period were randomly assigned to pretend or non-pretend play groups to take part in pretend or non-pretend play activities respectively in the 1-month kindergarten play training. Children’s pre- and post-training social competences were assessed by their teachers. Results revealed a trend that girls who participated in school pretend play tended to be less disruptive during peer interactions after the training than those who participated in non-pretend play, while boys were similarly benefited from the two play activities. The implications for play-related research and children’s social competence development are discussed.     

Pretend play and maternal scaffolding: Comparisons of toddlers with advanced development,typical development,and hearing impairment

This study used measures of pretend play and maternal scaffolding to explore and compare the early development of deaf children, typically developing children, and children showing advanced intellectual development. Marked differences were found among the groups in both play development and characteristics of mother‐child interactions. In particular, children who scored above 130 IQ at four years of age were found, as toddlers, to have demonstrated significantly advanced pretend play. In addition, the mothers of the high IQ children engaged in scaffolding behaviors involving higher stages of pretend transformations, verbal analogies and world links. The findings are discussed in relation to children's learning in Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development, as well as possible implications for future research on early gifted development.     

Rethinking family (dis)engagement with augmentative & alternative communication

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a core component of special education for many children with learning disabilities and/or autism who have minimal or no speech. Much literature focuses on implementation of AAC in the classroom or therapy setting, but less is known about how AAC is used in the family home. Few studies are authored by an AAC parent/researcher with reflection on positionality, power and the advantages conferred by ‘insider’ status. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the perspectives of five families of minimally verbal children on the place of AAC in their child’s home communication. Semi-structured family interviews were transcribed and subjected to Thematic Analysis. Formal AAC practices such as Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and Makaton were found to play a limited role in the children’s home communication. Findings indicate three possible explanations: the emotional and relationship-building dimensions of family communication; the competing priorities of family life with a disabled child; and the child’s existing multimodal communication strategies including the use of household objects. These findings offer a preliminary starting point for understanding the emic perspectives of AAC families and reasons for their convergence/divergence with professional attitudes to AAC, and warrant further investigation in larger-scale studies.