Impact Of Pretend Play On The Development Of Children

Discuss about the Impact of Pretend Play on Children’s Development.

 

 

This is a critical analysis on the chosen article named; ‘The Impact of Pretend Play on Children’s Development: A Review of the Evidence’. This study has shown the significant and importance of pretend play on the cognitive development of children. According to this study, pretend play is the crucial part for the healthy development of a child. The aim of this study is to defining the pretend play and review the theoretical position regarding this aspect with the help of evidence.

The chosen article has discussed about the evidence which assist in the developmental process; like problem solving, creativity, conservation, intelligence and reasoning. Findings of this study have shown that many scholars believe that pretend play benefits the cognitive development of the child. This study has focused over equifinality and epiphenomenalism which can be helped by the pretend play. With the help of epiphenomenalism, pretend play can demonstrate positive outcome for the purpose of development of the children.  

The method of this study explores that for social skills and executive function of children existing research bends against the vital causal position but it is insufficient to distinguish the other. From the findings of this study it is evident that epiphenomenalism position has been supported for the pretend play aspect. However, this study has also explored that there is lack of existing evidence that pretend play helps development. Therefore, institutions should not consider it as an alternative of traditional teacher-centered instructional approaches.

Reference:

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.