Playing plays a very crucial part in child development, among them pretend play is one of the activities that involve the most developing skills. A checklist provided by a researcher in the child and family early childhood intervention team listed out the skills a child could learn during pretend play. Pretending to play such as play script, role play, and social interaction is a way that child shows and intimate the behaviors that they have previously seen while they also train their imaginary thinking skill when creating a story or playing with an imaginary friend. Through pretend play a child manipulates and explores objects to show their understanding of the functional use of the object.

The age between 12 months to 5 years is a significant period for child development. During the first 12 months, a child observes and mirrors familiar behaviors. In their second year, children play scripts with actions such as pretending to drink, pretending to talk on a phone, and sweeping the floor. This is also a phase in which children recognize the exterior and shape of objects, for instance, they might use paper as a blanket. Around 3 years old, child plays are more detailed and logical, we would ask adults for missing objects in their game. They can use different objects for different purposes, such as seeing a box as a bed and a car or using different boxes to build a train. 4 years old, they can play with complex sequences and a special toy has its personality and background story with thoughts and feelings. In the fifth year, their play scripts start to include non-personal experiences, and stories such as pirates. In this phase, a child can play with negotiation.

In conclusion, pretend play is a crucial part that assists a child to learn and adapt skills to integrate into the world.

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

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