“Everything's Upside Down. We'll Call It Upside Down Valley!”: Siblings’ Creative Play Themes, Object Use, and Language During Pretend Play

Abstract

Research Findings: Pretend play is an important context that supports young children's developing social-cognitive and creative abilities. The play behaviors of 70 sibling dyads in early and middle childhood were examined for the following indices of creativity in play: (a) play themes (set-up/organization, expected, creative), (b) object use (set-up/organization, expected transformations, creative transformations), and (c) descriptive language (adjectives, adverbs). Internal state references, which are markers of social understanding (i.e., cognitive and emotional states), were also coded. Findings showed that (a) children who engaged in set-up themes (i.e., stating and describing play themes) and set-up object use (i.e., organizing props) were less likely to develop play scenarios with expected themes (i.e., themes that emanated from the props’ defining characteristics, such as a farmer milking a cow) or creative themes (i.e., themes that moved beyond the constraints imposed by the play materials, such as a tornado blowing down a barn), (b) children who developed expected themes were more likely to develop creative themes, and (c) adverbs were positively associated with expected themes and creative object transformations. Finally, we identified predictors of both creative themes and creative object transformations. Practice or Policy: Findings are discussed in light of recent research, theory, and implications for practice.