Training Disadvantaged Preschoolers on Various Fantasy Activities: Effects on Cognitive Functioning and Impulse Control

Abstract

Preschool children were trained in 1 of 3 different types of fantasy activities over a school year. The effects of this training were evaluated over a variety of tasks measuring cognitive development and impulse control. The same basic experiment was replicated over 3 different years. Results indicated that physical enactment of fantasy experiences (viz., acting fairy tales or enacting previous experiences) had a sizable effect on many of these variables; while simply listening and discussing was often no more effective than the control condition that merely cut, pasted, etc. Evidence suggested that fantasy play remoter from reality was more facilitative for development than more realistically oriented fantasy play.