Make-Believe Play: Wellspring for Development of Self-Regulation

Abstract

The early childhood years are a crucial time for the development of self-regulation — an array of complex mental capacities that includes impulse and emotion control, self-guidance of thought and behavior, planning, self-reliance, and socially responsible behavior. Self-regulation is also essential for children to meet the academic and social requirements of school. The human need for complex, flexible regulatory systems that can cope with a wide array of environmental conditions means that the development of self- regulation begins early, takes place over an extended time period, and requires substantial external support. Early childhood is also the “high season” of imaginative play, when make-believe evolves from simple imitative acts into elaborate plots involving complex coordination of roles. This chapter presents wide-ranging evidence that pretense is pivotal in children's advancing mastery over their own thinking, emotions, and behavior. The data are based on the sociocultural theory of Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who viewed social experiences such as make-believe play as prime catalysts of development.

Self-Regulation and School Success

“…h e robust i ndings linking physical activity to attention and other aspects of self-control suggest that eliminating gym class to make room for formal academic instruction may, paradoxically, reduce self-control (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008 ). Play, and in particular pretend (i.e., imaginary) play with others, facilitates the development of a wide array of self-regulation skills (Berk, Mann, & Ogan, 2006 ;Saltz, Dixon, & Johnson, 1977 ;Singer & Singer, 1990. Like gym class, recess is ot en considered of secondary importance to academic objectives, but reducing opportunities for children to make up stories, exercise their imaginations and their bodies, and resolve conl icts without help from adults may ultimately impair normative development of attention and other aspects of Conscientiousness (Panksepp, 2007 ).…”

Guys and dolls: a qualitative study of teachers’ views of gendered play in kindergarten

“…While engaged in play, children enact different social, home, and class roles (Dyson, 2003;Whitehead, 2004), model typical behaviours, and increasingly draw on cultural models and conventions experienced in their environments (Berk, Mann, & Ogan, 2006;Matheson, Spranger, & Saxe, 2002;Ortega, 2003;Smith, 2005). Such behaviours are expected, given that humans possess an advanced capacity for acquiring knowledge, attitudes, values, and competencies through observational learning (Bandura, 2002).…”

Conceptual split? Parents' and experts' perceptions of play in the 21st century

“…Cognitive effects of symbolic play are far reaching, including enhanced abstract thought (Saltz, Dixon, & Johnson, 1977), symbolic representation (DeLoache, 2002), perspective-taking ( Youngblade & Dunn, 1995), creativity (Russ et al, 1999), memory Newman, 1990), intelligence (Johnson, Ershler, & Lawton, 1982), language (Pellegrini & Galda, 1993), and literacy (e.g., Nicolopoulou et al, 2006). It is also central to the development of self-regulation, in which children learn to manage their own behaviors and emotions (e.g., Berk, Mann, & Ogan, 2006).…”

“…Social play helps children learn to subordinate desires to social rules, cooperate with others willingly, and engage in socially appropriate behavior (e.g., Berk, Mann, & Ogan, 2006). Fantasy or makebelieve play has been found to be crucial for building children's social competence, including their ability to self-soothe and cope emotionally (e.g., Connolly & Doyle, 1984).…”