“This Is a Pit of Fire”: Associations of Play Materials With Children’s Creativity During Play and Internal State Language

“This is a mailbox, right?”: Associations of play materials with siblings’ and friends’ shared meanings during pretend play

“…Specifically, the train props give the specific message that "this is train play" (Bateson, 1955;Garvey, 1990). In a related study examining set-up, expected, and creative play themes and object use in the same play sets as employed here, Howe et al (2020) reported that children engaged in more expected train scenarios and object use (e.g. driving the train to pick up passengers at the station) than with the open-ended village set, indicating the power of the specific play materials to prompt "train"-related themes.…”

“…This hypothesis was based on the village set's greater number, variety, and thematically less scripted props (e.g. buildings, trees, people, animals), thus providing possibilities for a wider variety of potential scenarios (Howe et al, 2020). Finally, we expected both siblings and friends would engage in more clarifications with the village (e.g.…”

“…The process of establishing shared meanings via negotiation of roles, scripts, and actions to create a common understanding between partners is a dynamic and intricate form of communication (Farver, 1992;Garvey, 1990;Giffin, 1984;Göncü, 1993;Howe et al, in press;Leach et al, 2015;Parsons and Howe, 2013). To ensure partners are in sync with one another, they must engage in reciprocal and bi-directional exchanges using a variety of strategies such as introductions, extensions, and clarifications (Farver, 1992;Giffin, 1984;Göncü, 1993;Howe et al, 2005Howe et al, , 2020Leach et al, 2015). As Bateson (1955) argued, children need to signal to their partner that "this is play" via effective communication strategies to co-construct a narrative.…”

“…with the village set. These two shared meaning strategies ensured that children established a common understanding regarding the more openended theme of the village materials, which is a critical aspect of their co-construction of scenarios (Garvey, 1990;Giffin, 1984;Göncü, 1993;Howe et al, 2005Howe et al, , 2020Leach et al, 2015). In contrast, the props (i.e.…”

“…Both siblings and friends engaged in more collaborative behaviors with the train set, such as jointly constructing the train tracks, compared to play with the village props. In contrast, the open-ended village set required greater clarification regarding what children would do, how they would do it, and what would happen next; thus, they were in a constant state of "checking-in" to ensure they were in sync, unlike during the train play (Giffin, 1984;Göncü, 1993;Howe et al, 2020). One example during village play highlights the checking-in process: Child 1: "What would you call this?…”