Let's Pretend- More than a Game

Children often begin to pretend from around the age of 12 months, or when they start talking. There are three different types of pretend play that children engage in: self as vehicle, toy/object as vehicle, or nothing as vehicle. In all of these situations, children ascribe physical or behavioral traits to a person, object, or imaginary being that aren't actually there. For example, in Alison Shawber's guest lecture, we were introduced to a little boy who's pretend identity was Spiderman. When spiderman, the boy pretended to shoot webs from his wrists and jump from building to building (couch to couch). We met a few personified objects, like Lamby Baby, the pregnant lamb, too. We also learned about imaginary friends, one of whom, Elfie Welfie, had rainbow hair and sometimes bossed her creator around. Research with children has shown that pretend play, specifically "role play," is correlated with better performance in many areas of development, such as verbal ability, sociability, creativity, theory of mind, and executive function. A question I wish I'd asked is, "Have there been any long term studies regarding pretend play and adult behavior and beliefs?" Of course, adults can self report on whether or not they played pretend as a child, but they may have insufficient memories of that age to accurately report it all the time. What I want to know is, does pretend play predict important social skills that we value as a society once an individual reaches adulthood, like empathy, cultural sensitivity, charity, ingenuity, diplomacy- all of which, on some level, require us to put ourselves in someone else's place? If we have practice pretending to be someone other than we are, that might make us more able to understand someone else's circumstances. This is related to the Simulationist View, which suggests that we understand what someone else is thinking or feeling by "simulating" that experience in our own mind. If we are able to better simulate what someone else might be going through, that may lead to the above valued behaviors.

We know from experience that not all imagining produces good results- many criminals fantasize about doing harm to others before they carry it out. This pretending does not seem to help them put themselves in their victim's place. But pretend play in a healthy childhood environment seems to be a positive predictor of many mental and social skills. Pretend play may be a tool that parents and schools can use more effectively to benefit children's development.