“The future is manifest in our children’s imagination and perfected in the games they play” – Chris L. Andreadis
Imaginative pretend play is a process in which children take up roles they see in their environment and live it from their own perspective. It consists of components like make-believe, fantasy, organization, divergent thinking, and symbolism, which influence a child at cognitive levels. It also covers various affective processes such as expression of emotions, regulation, and modulation of affect, cognitive integration and expression of affect themes (Russ, Fehr & Hoffmann, 2013). When these creative and affective areas are invoked, it leads to creativity in the child.When in a state of fantasy, a child does not repress and has open affect; many positive emotions are involved, which has been related to the component of creativity. Emotions in play make it easy for emotional memories to be accessed easily and create new ways to associate affect with experiences, people and situations (Hoffmann et. al., 2013).
The use and prevalence of imaginative pretend play is highly recommended and more researched in preschoolers. But looking at how children in the age group of 6-10 years engage in activities influenced from the roles they see in the family and outside (like school game, home game, doctor game etc.) and successful researches on it, it won’t be wrong to say that children use it to understand and regulate emotions. As per Moore and Russ (2008), children of age group 6-8, who show more creativity and affect during pretend-play are able to self-regulate themselves better.It is seen that children usually find it difficult to make sense of and express emotions. Due to a lack of understanding, their control on emotions is poor. Keeping the objective of providing children more options and experiences for emotional reaction, pretend play can play a very important role. In the research done by Moore and Russ in 2018, when theexaminers facilitated each child play out four stories per session, and even instructed them to make up their own story one time each session. They were given toys and were encouraged to play out stories with emotions correctly, for 3-5 weeks. The result showed an increase in playing skills, cognitive skills that showed strong impact on affective processes of a child.
Pretend-play, although has ‘play’ in its name, yet children do take it seriously. Children tend to get in the role of the character they are playing and the situation they are pretending to be. In this process, they think of various ways to react and respond.Therefore, not only are they thinking in diversely, they are also controlling their basic way of responding. Imagine a situation where a child is enacting a scene of some panic, she would react in a basic way she supposes the character would, but during that process if we engage that child in thoughts regarding the pros and cons of that reaction, she would chose the more sensible alternative. I think such facilitations can be done by being a part of play with them or just by giving fun instructions from the outside by just providing them with some companion and materials.
Throughout the process of pretend-play, children changebehaviours and control emotions, responses and actions as per the other members and situations. As Wallace in 2013 quoted Singer (1995) in her thesis that in pretend-plays, children experiment their emotions in a safe way. One thing that I find is special about using this medium is its power to help children experience both negative and positive effects. As both of them are important for life, practice through play withforthrightnessto various affective states can result in giving them an emotional experience of good and adverse life events.
Pretend-plays can be used with diverse abilities and population of children. Research on Autistic children and pretend play showed positive involvement of children; Lewis and Boucher (1988) found that in pretending plays children with autism tend to perform well. It is usually suggested that the roots of pretense are in socio-cultural interactions (as by Vygotsky in 1966), and studies suggest that autistic children can make sense of social interactions but they need to be without many mental representations (Baron-Cohen, 1991), so simple pretend to play activities can be fruitful in understanding rules of affect in social interactions. A study on the effects of pretend play on emotional regulation on children with intellectual disabilities showed that pretend play intervention with intellectually disabled children improved their self-regulation, self-attention, and self-motivation (Vieillevoye&Nader-Grosbois, 2007). The procedure utilized dyads with children of same mental age and setting up of few social scenarios:‘‘tea party’’, ‘‘doctor’’, ‘‘transportation’’ and ‘‘symbolic creativity’’.
When I think of using imaginative pretend-play with the children, many questions, situations, and possibilities cross my mind as a budding counsellor. Some questions are, that would it work for the children with different modalities, that is would it invoke same effective with children that operate from sensory-motor modality, concrete-modality, formal operational modality, and dialectic modality equally? What can be the best ways to control the imaginative pretend-play situations during the sessions? How to draw a line between play and a therapeutic process? What are the ways I can be sensitive about the needs of special need children in such a setting? I think these questions are more likely to get clear with supervision, experience and reading current developments in the field.To bring my thoughts to a still, imaginative pretend-play is a wonderful medium to interact with children and involve in change through inclusive, experiential and subtle learning.
References
Hoffmann, J., & Russ, S. (2012). Pretend play, creativity, and emotion regulation in children. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 6(2), 175–184. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026299
Jarrold, C. (2003). A Review of Research into Pretend Play in. Autism, 7(4), 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361303007004004
Moore, M., & Russ, S. W. (2008). Follow-up of a pretend play intervention: Effects on play, creativity, and emotional processes in children. Creativity Research Journal, 20(4), 427–436. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400410802391892
Vieillevoye, S., & Nader-Grosbois, N. (2008). Self-regulation during pretend play in children with intellectual disability and in normally developing children. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 29(3), 256–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2007.05.003
Wallace, C. E., & Wallace, C. E. (2013). Pretend Play and Resiliency: A Follow-up Study of School-Aged Children.