“…From a neurocognitive perspective, play contributes to the development of higher cognitive functions and of the prefrontal regions implicated in inhibition and executive control that underlie creative, self-reflective, and empathic capabilities (Panksepp, 2007). From a clinical perspective, children's fantasy play is an early mental activity through which children create structure by putting their feelings and subjective experience into a coherent narrative, helping them attribute meaning to the complexity of their own and others' mental worlds (Ensink & Mayes, 2010;McMahon, 2009;Slade, 1994). Therefore, play, as a mental activity, facilitates the integration of experience and the regulation of emotions (Alessandri, 1991;Berk, Mann, & Ogan, 2006;Kernberg, Chazan, & Normandin, 1998).…”