Young Children's Story Recall as a Product of Play, Story Familiarity, and Adult Intervention.

Abstract

Two concerns in play research were addressed: the degree of adult intervention and the cognitive constructive nature of play. It was hypothesized that the de gree of adult intervention would not make a difference in play treatments and that thematic-fantasy play would serve to construct metalinguistic understand ings. Experiment 1, using 505 subjects, indicated that thematic-fantasy play ex periences facilitated ability to recall a that was not acted out (p < .001). A significant Age X Treatment interaction (p < .05), indicating play was facilitative for younger subjects but not older, supported the hypothesis that young children gained metalinguistic story knowledge through thematic-fantasy play. Experi ment 2, with 340 subjects, replicated the play effect of Experiment 1 and exam ined the effects of adult intervention in play. Although play remained facilitative for recall (p < .001), no differences were found between facilitative and direc tive play intervention. A significant interaction between adult intervention and children's familiarity with the thematic-fantasy play indicated that recall was aided by directive intervention for unfamiliar stories and facilitative inter vention for familiar stories.