Sansanwal, S. (2014). Pretend play enhances creativity and imagination. Journal of Arts and Humanities, 3(1), 70-83.

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature to examine the themes that aims to find the association of pretend play with creativity and how pretend play is predictive of later life creativity. The developmental trends and issues of the play and creativity are also examined to find if any age and gender differences are there in developmental patterns of creativity through pretend play. The review of literature made it clear that pretend play uses cognitive processes that are involved in creative thinking. So pretend play is a predictor of creativity. Results of studies till date also indicated that creativity though develops in continuum has periods of lags and spurts throughout the childhood to adolescence. Gender differences have also been found in girls and boys play behaviors as girls are found to be engaged more in realistic role-playing than boys of their age in preschools. Later girls are found to excel boys in verbal and fluency tasks of creativity in early adolescence.

Keywords: Pretend play, Creativity, Cognitive Processes, Developmental patterns, Gender differences and Review

Full text

Pretend Play Enhances Creativity and Imagination
Shallu Sansanwal1
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Available Online January 2014
This paper reviews the literature to examine the themes that aims to
find the association of pretend play with creativity and how pretend
play is predictive of later life creativity. The developmental trends and
issues of the play and creativity are also examined to find if any age
and gender differences are there in developmental patterns of
creativity through pretend play. The rev
iew of literature made it clear
that pretend play uses cognitive processes that are involved in creative
thinking. So pretend play is a predictor of creativity. Results of studies
till date also indicated that creativity though develops in continuum
has pe
riods of lags and spurts throughout the childhood to
adolescence. Gender differences have also been found in girls and boys
play behaviors as girls are found to be engaged more in realistic role
-
playing than boys of their age in preschools. Later girls are
found to
excel boys in verbal and fluency tasks of creativity in early
adolescence.
Key words:
Pretend play;
Creativity;
Cognitive Processes;
Developmental patterns;
Gender differences
and Review.
1. Introduction
Play is an important part of an appropriate childcare and it is closely attached to the development of
cognitive, emotional, social and physical behaviors. Play by nature is difficult to define. Saracho (1992) used
the criteria like motivation by satisfaction, spontaneous behavior and exploration of familiar and non-
familiar objects, non-literal and free from rules activities to define play. Many forms of play thus helps the
child to develop in all aspects of learning. Play is viewed as this casual agent in developmental change
during childhood, which is the time when many changes in knowledge of self and world are dramatically
occurring in the child.
Pretend play is the form of play that uses the child’s perception of world and fantasy to symbolize one object
as another. It is an arena in which children constructs and reconstructs past experiences that in turn
facilitates the development of divergent thinking, which is an important aspect of cognitive development
(Russ, 2003). Children playing role in different scenarios using different objects or toys to represent
different things, cultivate a picture using the cognitive processes of separating and assembling past
experiences and knowledge in unique ways (Singer & Singer, 1990). This process there by increases their
divergent thinking and transformational abilities.
Divergent thinking is not a synonym of creativity but it plays a central role in developing creative thinking in
children. Literature over the period of time has supported divergent thinking as an important cognitive
process, which was associated with pretend play and fantasy affect. The purpose of the present study is to
review the literature in order to find the themes that emerge in relation to creativity, imagination and
pretend play. This literature review also aims to find the developmental patterns of creative thinking across
childhood to adolescence and their relation to pretend play. The gender differences in the play pattern and
creative thinking development are also reviewed to find the gap if any in our understanding of how play
enhances creativity and imagination.
2. Methods for inclusion criteria and search procedures
Inclusion Criteria:
The studies involving preschoolers, young children and adolescents (age 18 or younger)
to measure pretend play and creativity and to explore various other aspects related to them were included
in the present review. In these studies intelligence was a measure that was controlled. This review also
1 National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
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Pretend Play Enhances Creativity and Imagination
ShalluSansanwal
included studies showing that how processes related to play like divergent thinking and transformational
ability are also the part of creativity and further when interventions improve play skills it also has effects on
cognitive processes and creativity. Studies reflecting developmental patterns of creativity and gender
differences in play behavior and creativity development of children from preschools to adolescence were
also reviewed. Table 1 gives the brief summary of paper reviewed and instruments used.
Search Procedures
A computerized database was used for this literature review. Multi-database literature search was
conducted from 2nd February to 1st March 2012. Academic Search Primer, Child Development, ERIC and
Psych INFO databases from EBSCO search engine were used, using the keywords like ‘children’, ‘creativity’,
‘imagination’ and ‘gender’. Only peer reviewed journal articles limited to English Language were considered.
In addition, online first database of “Creativity Research Journal” was searched to get recent articles
relevant to our literature review. Studies measuring different aspects of creativity and imagination were
also included to observe the measurement of these activities in different stages of development.
3. Literature Review
Play, Cognitive Style and Creativity
Theoretically play fosters development of creative thinking by developing the cognitive and affective
processes involved in the play. Investigations conducted by Saracho (1992) were aimed at finding the
relationship between three to five years old children’s cognitive style and their social play. Sample consisted
of 300 3-, 4-and 5-years old children. They were administered PRS (Play Rating Scale, Saracho 1984) and
Preschool Embedded Figure Test (PEFT). On administering PEFT to 3year old children scoring higher than
5or above were considered Field Independent (FI; socially detached, greater analytic skills and capable of
cognitive functioning). Four-and 5-year old children scoring higher than 10 were considered FI and low
scoring children were considered Field Dependent (FD; more sensitive to feelings of others and greater
social skills). Results indicated a significant difference in FI and FD children’s cognitive style. The FI children
engaged more in play activity thus giving them the cognitive skills to rely on their own values and standards
and solve difficult problems using strong analytical skills. Such children even engaged in social play
behavior exhibiting cognitive flexibility. The cognitive flexibility was also related to creativity in FI children.
The limitation to the study was that different raters rated the measures for the children that may have
brought some discrepancies in results.
Pretend Play and Creativity
i) Play Impact Metacognitive Processes
Pretend play or symbolic play supports metacognitive or self-regulatory skills that are in turn critical in
development of problem solving and creativity (Whitebread
et al
., 2009). Conducting a longitudinal study
for two years to find relationship between metacognitive or self-regulatory processes behaviors proved it.
All activities involving different play behaviors were video recorded and coded on the basis of analytical
model of self-regulation developed by Pino Pasternak (2006). Results indicated that play impacted
metacognitive processes, which in turn affected various aspects of development involving problem solving
and creativity.
ii) Predictive Power of Pretend Play in Creativity
Russ, Andrew and Christiano (1999) did A longitudinal study was done to investigate the predictive power
of pretend play in creativity by posing a research question “Are the abilities of the first and second grade to
express emotions and engagement in fantasy play predictive of creativity and fantasy over a period of 4
years”? The original sample included 121 first and second grade children, who were individually
administered Affect Play Scale (APS) and then Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R Dunn &
Dunn, 1981) by separate administrators. The PPVT-R is administered as a control for intelligence. Follow
up was done 4 years later in which only 31 of the original participants participated who were in grade five
and six then. They were administered APS and Alternate Use Test (Wallach &Kogan’s, 1965) as a measure of
divergent thinking. Two additional measures Creative Activities Checklist (suitable for grade 5 and 6) and
The School Coping Scale were administered for exploratory purpose. Results predicted that pretend play in
young children was significantly predictive of divergent thinking and affect in fantasy over a period of time.
The APS measure showed that children who express more affect and better quality of fantasy as first and
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Journal of Arts and Humanities (JAH), Volume -3, No.-1, January, 2014
second graders continue to do so later also. Positive affect themes are also stable over a period of four years.
Several scores on APS also predicted that good early play skills also generated the ability of higher quality
problem solving in daily life. The limitations of this study included the inability to reproduce the data of all
121 children at the beginning of the study because many children were not available to be studied after four
years due to various reasons. Although the APS scores were significant for divergent thinking yet the
researchers could not obtain larger samples for any substantial statistical analysis and thus it was difficult
to generalize. Second limitation of this study was the measure of coping, which did not actually measure the
coping behavior, but was just a self-report on coping. Adequacy of storytelling task measure is also
questioned because of discrepancies between the judgments of two raters. Such limitations were also
evident in the study of White bread
et al
., (2009) where adult practitioner selected to be a part of project due
to their excellent practices struggled to do so effectively in child’s play without taking over regulatory role.
Even after these limitations, these studies established significant relation among pretend play, creativity
and cognitive processes involved. The study of Russ
et al
., (1999) established a significant correlation
between divergent thinking and children’s play behavior when extended to 10 years of follow up (Russ,
2003).
The literature over a period of time supported divergent thinking as an important cognitive process, which
is associated with pretend play and fantasy affect and in turn leads to problem solving and creative thinking
potential in children.
iii) Developmental Issues of Creativity in relation to Pretend Play
Creativity during the process of development shows many developmental issues and gender differences.
Differences in developmental pattern in creativity are studied in relation to pretend play.
Developmental Issues
As children grow older their creative thoughts are expected to be richer cognitively in content. One of the
key cognitive processes underlying creative continuum across lifespan is transformational abilities
(Guilford, 1968; Runco, 1996). Children as young as two and three year-old show transformational abilities
which have been suggested to be utilized in childhood’s pretend play and linked to later life’s creative
abilities (Kavanaugh& Harris, 1994). These transformational abilities indicate the difference in degree but
no difference in kind. Pretend play provides a sphere through which creative expressions are encouraged
(Saracho, 2002). Important developmental venues are provided by pretend play, which allows children to
practice their transformational skills for interpreting their developing world (Runco, 1996). This
relationship of pretend play to creativity is less clear in later life. Two different views, one stating that
pretends play in early childhood is predictive of later life creativity and another that there is no relation
between pretend play and creativity in later life has been expressed. As the children become more sociable
and get educational training, they are able to assemble their thought well and thus enrich their creative
experiences (Mullineaux & Dilalla, 2009). On the other hand, studies have shown no increase in the
creativity as the personal factors like lack of risk taking or willingness to face failure act as a block for the
development of creativity with growing child (Lau &Li, 1996 & Lau
et al
., 2004). It is of common observation
that the older children are under the peer pressure to let out their original feelings but the younger children
are more willing to engage in role-playing and other creative activities. Mullineaux and Dilalla (2009) did a
longitudinal study to examine the link between pretend play, realistic role-playing in preschool and
creativity and divergent thinking in early adolescence. They hypothesized that the pretend play behavior of
preschoolers will be related to the performance task (verbal and non-verbal) on divergent thinking. Gender
differences are also examined to understand the individual developmental patterns. Sample of 127 children
participated at the age of five. Follow up was done in early adolescence. Results supported the hypothesis.
This study showed that pretend play behavior is important to understand the development of creativity
during early adolescence. The limitations of this study were firstly the means by which creativity was
developed, were left unexplored and secondly it was also not known that the cognitive processes involved in
creativity drew upon same cognitive resources like transformational abilities or do they depended upon the
personality traits like openness to experience and persistence. Another measure that was not fully explored
was the relationship between realistic role-play in performance on Test of Creativity and Thinking Drawing
Production (TCT-DP; Urban &Jellin, 1986). Since this study is the first to use these correlations more in
depth, it requires further investigations. The results may have some variations, as the role-play behavior of
child would be influenced by whom they are paired with and how the aspect of social interaction played
between them. Even for the adolescents follow up, the questionnaires were mailed so responses could have
been assisted by friends and no time limit in the completion of creativity measure could have resulted in
varied results.
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ShalluSansanwal
The examination of possible links between pretend play behaviours and creativity in adolescence is
important for several reasons. First, creative problem solvers have better coping skills as they are better
able to utilize these skills in addressing everyday problems (Moore & Russ, 2006). It has been stated that
young children, who engage in creative problem solving, are better able to cope with major and minor
stresses of life (Carson and Runco, 1999). Secondly, as pretend play impacts later divergent thinking
performance (Russ, 2003), it is possible that pretend play interventions during early childhood can lead to
improved creative abilities in adolescence. Thirdly, development of full potential of creative thinking is
beneficial for both the individual and society in this complex modern world (Runco, 2004).
Age Related Issues
Many studies over the period of time have provided us evidence that although unfolding of creative abilities
is a continuous process but there are periods of peaks and slumps over the course of development (Charles
& Runco, 2001; Claxton, Pannells, & Rhoads, 2005)
.
First developmental slump was indicated at around the
age of 5 (Torrance, 1962). It was reasoned that at this age children enter school and thus demands of school
environment like teachers and peers results in initial decline in creativity. In a series of longitudinal studies
measuring creative abilities from early childhood to adolescence, an evidence of peak was found in creative
performance at the age of 10 and 11, which later declined at 12 years of age (Smith &Carlsson, 1983, 1985,
1990). Later a steady increase was observed from 13 years of age and then there was an additional increase
at the age of 16. These findings show that though creativity increases in continuum, there are periods of lags
and spurts. Lau and Cheung (2010) tested a sample of 2,476 Grade 4 to 9 Chinese school children on new
electronic Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests. The focus of the study was to study the developmental trends of
creativity and to find the differences in girls and boys trajectory of creative thinking development. Results
indicated that there emerged two distinct patterns in creativity development of primary and secondary
grades. Verbal and figural (fluency & flexibility), uniqueness and unusualness rose from Grade 4 to Grade5.
These measures of creativity then dropped from Grade 5 to Grade 6. There was a drop in the creativity from
Grade 6 to grade 7 when there was a transition from primary to secondary school. Grade 7 to Grade 9 saw
an increase in creativity measures. In this study significant grade differences were found in verbal and
figural (fluency and flexibility) indexes. Index scores in primary were lowest for the fourth graders. Among
the secondary students the verbal and figural indexes were lowest for eighth graders. Thus the results were
supportive of the previous studies on developmental trends of creativity from preschools to adolescence age
(Claxton et al., 2005).
Another longitudinal study of Claxton et al.,(2005) using Creativity Assessment Packet (CAP, Williams,
1993) in school age children examines the developmental trends in both divergent thinking and feeling.
Initial sample of 184 children were assessed in Grade 4 and 124 of the original sample was reassessed in
grade 6. It was found that divergent thinking and divergent feeling scores increases over time. Slight
increase was found in divergent thinking scores between fourth and ninth graders but no significant
increase was recorded between fourth and sixth grade, and sixth and ninth grades. One significant score
was recorded for a decrease in originality score between fourth and sixth grades and increase in
Elaboration score between sixth and ninth grades. Interesting aspect of this study was that significant
change was seen over time on divergent feeling for 4 through 6 grade and ninth grade levels. Greatest
changes between sixth and ninth grades were found. These findings support that divergent feeling increases
through school years especially between sixth and ninth grades as a child enters adolescence. These scores
on CAP were related to personality characteristics and motivational dimensions in creativity. This supports
the idea that creativity is still developing during adolescence like personality characteristics.
Effects of Gender Differences
Mixed evidence of gender differences have been found in establishing the correlation between pretend play
and creativity. Many studies have indicated male advantage in verbal tasks during the elementary school
years. Mullineaux and Dilalla (2009) conducted study with127 children at the age of 5 and then a follow up
was done in early adolescence. The results supported male advantage on verbal tasks in elementary years.
This study indicated significant gender differences in terms of total number of instances of realistic role-
playing during free play. Study showed that boys engaged more in outdoor activities and girls in role-
playing behavior. Girls at ages of 10-15 had more elaborate, better-drawn and novel drawing skills than
boys. Cheung and Lau (2010) used electronic version of Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests (e-WKCT) to find
the gender differences in creativity. Sample of this study consisted of eight primary and four secondary
schools. Grade 4 to Grade 6 was recruited for primary and Grade 7 to Grade 9 for secondary schools. Total of
2476 children consisting of 1222 boys and 1254 girls were studied. Results showed that girls excelled in
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Journal of Arts and Humanities (JAH), Volume -3, No.-1, January, 2014
verbal flexibility, figural fluency, and figural unusualness. In a previous study of Lau and Cheung (2010), it
was found that boys from grade 4 through grade 6 had higher creativity scores but the difference was only
marginal. The pattern reversed in grade 4 to grade 6 where girls showed statistically significant scores in
creativity as compared to boys. In grade 7 through grade 8, girls excelled boys in verbal (flexibility &
fluency) and figural (flexibility and fluency). The pattern of girls outperforming boys has also been observed
for eighth and eleventh graders (Rejskind, Rapagna& Gold, 1999; Kim & Michael, 1995). These differences
may be due to girls engaging more in role-playing or personal fantasy plays than boys do during preschool
years. Personal play fantasy is a common form of pretend play for girls during preschool years
(Werebe&Baudonniere, 1991). This fact has also been supported by the results of a study where girls
around 4 to 5 years of age have been observed to engage in role-playing and on personal play fantasy twice
the time than the boys of similar age group (Jones and Glenn, 1991). The lack of high scores of girls in
elementary level may be due to lowering ideation counteracting their language development. This may be
possibly due to the cultural differences in boys and girls bringing up.
The study done by Cheung
et al.,
(2004) reported no gender differences by using paper pencil test version of
WKCT and gender differences, if any in terms of stress, were due to change in school environment in Hong
Kong. A study on fifth and sixth graders could not reveal any gender differences in creativity scores.
Similarly no creative differences could be seen in males and females in a college and adult samples
(Barrantes- Vidal, Caparros, &Obiols, 1999; Reese, Lee, Cohen & Puckett, 2001). One of the most significant
factors explaining gender differences includes cultural demands like politeness and restraint, which
interferes with creative development of girls (Reis, 1999).
iv) Pretend Play Interventions
Creativity, emotional understanding, regulation of affect and subjective well-being are related to cognitive
and affective processes. Interventions designed to improve play should also have long term effects on
related attributes like facilitating positive affect as well as skill development. Long term pretend play
interventions should develop play skills that promote long-term improvement in cognitive and effective
outcomes.
Play Interventions Improves Cognitive Processes
Moore and Russ (2008) investigated the effects on play processes and creativity by the intervention
designed to improve the children’s pretend play skills. It was a longitudinal study involving 2-8 months of
post intervention. This study hypothesized that on follow up a) play group shows improvement in play
skills, b) increased amount and variety of affect would be expressed by affect group and also higher scores
on the subjective well-being and also regulation of emotions, c) better story organization and imagination in
play would be shown by the imagination group d) play group will show higher scores on creativity
measures. The sample consisted of 50 children from six to eight years of age in first- and second- grade
classrooms. Forty-five children out of the original sample participated in the post intervention follow up.
The original sample was then distributed in different groups like 19 in imagination group, 17 in affect group,
and 14 in control group. Measures like APS (Affect Play Scale), Alternate use Test (Gulliford, 1968),Kusche
affective interview- revised (KAI-R; Kusche, Greenberg, &Beilke, 1988)and Emotion Regulation Checklist
(ERC; Sheilds&Ciccheti, 1997) were used. Results showed that play intervention resulted in improved play
at follow-up for the imagination group and these improvements were stable over the period of time. This
result also showed that play did not lead to improvement in other measure’s of children’s functioning. The
possible reason for such finding can be that the organized play interventions were most effective in
improving the cognitive and affective play processes in the long term. Secondly APS had been most sensitive
measure for the cognitive processes that was targeted by the imagination intervention. These findings were
consistent when group differences in APS were measured for frequency of affect expression, frequency of
positive affect, organizational scores and quality of fantasy. It was than established that improving the play
skills can lead to increase in cognitive and affective processes.
Another finding from this study also showed no significant difference in the intervention and control group
for emotional understanding, emotion regulation ability and subjective well-being. This could be due to the
fact that the intervention planned did not target these skills adequately. Another unexpected finding of the
study was that AUT fluency and flexibility scores were significantly higher for the control group. This
unanticipated direction suggests that certain play processes interfere with one another. In terms of
creativity in fluency and flexibility, it can mean that cognitive processes of organization and imagination
may interfere with the creative processes. This indicated that short-term improvement in the creativity can
be gained by play interventions but it will require follow up interventions for long term effects. Limitation of
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Pretend Play Enhances Creativity and Imagination
ShalluSansanwal
the study was that it had low statistical power and larger sample were needed for significant results.
Different examiners carried out interventions that might have contributed to differential effect.
Play and Mood
A study carried out by Russ and Kaugras (2000-2001) investigated that whether expression of affect in
pretend play is altered by instructions and will creativity be influenced by different affective conditions.
Eighty-first and second grade children were administered APS, Alternate Use Test (AUT) and self-rating of
mood measures. Results showed that instructions could influence affect in play but negative affect was
influenced most. This showed that the type of play he is engaged in affects the mood of the child. The
negative affect failed to facilitate creativity. Self-reported mood although associated with the originality of
the divergent thinking responses. Children expressing more emotions gave more original responses. This
study failed to test the effect of positive emotions of creativity, as the play instructions in happy group could
not increase positive affect. This gives us future area to concentrate for the research in relationship between
positive affect and creativity.
Creativity Play and Imagination
Imagination is the ability to form rich and varied mental images or concepts of people, places, things and
situations not present (Isenberg &Jalongo,1993). Thus imagination is that thought of mind, which is
characterized by the ability of individuals to reproduce images that are originally derived from the basic
senses, but are now reflected in one’s consciousness as memories, fantasies, and future plans. The
imagination capacities begin to appear by third year of life. It evolves same time around which the child
begins to start pretend games and start verbalizing their stories. Creativity and imagination are not the
same things but are connected as creativity involves the use of imagination. Creativity involves purposefully
using imagination to generate something original and valuable. Thus creativity is the ability to turn
imagination into reality.
Factors enhancing imaginative play
Though children begin showing signs of make believe play by three years of age, there are individual
differences in their frequencies and complexity. Development of imaginary friends may be a creative step
for many children as it is associated with imaginative play forms (Singer& Singer, 1990). Parents, who
discourage children in talking about imaginary friends, are putting obstacles in the path of cognitive and
emotional development of their children. Enhancing imaginative skills through storytelling, reading or floor
play helps in development and encouraging child’s imagination, which in turn improves his creative
thinking. Imagination and play in children are closely related. In a study, children’s play materials have been
shown to motivate them to create fantasy themes that were based on their daily life incidences (Saracho,
1992). Real-life situations in games like ‘house-house’ or play as movie stars, cops cartoon characters etc.
are usually represented by the children in pretend play. These plays give them creative opportunities and
this explains association between play, imagination and creativity. Affect in play and creativity has 2
dimensions (Kaugars&Russ, 2009). One is affect state like emotions, expressions and expressing feelings
and another is affect- laden thought including themes and contents. In children’s fantasy play, these affect
themes and affect-laden thoughts associate and facilitate divergent thinking. These associations in turn
broaden the association of creativity with pretend play and imagination.
4. Discussion
Pretend play in young children is predictive of divergent thinking and affect in fantasy over the time.
Affective and cognitive processes in play are stable over time and these processes are important for
divergent thinking. The children expressing more affect and better quality of fantasy as first and second
graders expressed more affect and better quality of fantasy in puppet play and stories as sixth and seventh
graders. Cognitive processes are involved in pretend play and later fantasy activity (Russ
et al
., 1999; Moore
and Russ, 2008; Russ and Kaugras, 2000-2001; Saracho, 1992; and Whitebread
et al
., 2009). Their studies
further suggested that play influences self-regulation and metacognitive processes. It has been shown that
good early play skills were predictive of the ability to generate alternative solutions and higher quality
problem solving ability. The Affect in Fantasy measure was significantly related to divergent thinking and
several dimensions of storytelling but failed to relate to creativity scores in storytelling or to creative
activities measure. The analysis of their data involving two experimental studies regarding experience of
students about the play conditions showed that playful experiences were effective in preparing children for
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Journal of Arts and Humanities (JAH), Volume -3, No.-1, January, 2014
effortful, problem solving or creative tasks that required higher level of metacognitive and self regulatory
performance. The results of significant differences in play behaviors of FD and FI groups of children
indicated significant relationship between children’s cognitive style and their play behaviors. The play
behaviors observed in FI children suggest cognitive flexibility. Social interaction observed in play is a form
of social behavior and is again related to cognitive flexibility of thought. The ability of children’s ability to
engage in pretense or fantasy play is related to the wide range of cognitive and cognitive skills (Rubin,
1980). Since the children apply their power to make symbols and fantasy play, it is an essential component
to maintain human uniqueness and vitality. It can be concluded from several studies that play assists
children to develop their creative thinking. Fantasy play in children is based on the incidents of day today
problems and play materials can motivate fantasy themes.
Play can be improved with systematic interventions. Play intervention resulted in improved play at follow
up for imagination group. Imagination focused intervention improved scores on a measure of play
processes, thus supporting the theory that play can be improved (Russ, 1993). An imagination or
organization focused intervention is the most effective way to improve both cognitive and affective play
processes in long term. Targeting cognitive skills can improve certain affective processes in play such as
increased positive affect expression (Moore & Russ, 2008).
Cheung
et al
., (2004) could see no gender differences in previous norming study using WKCT, which was
revised in the Chinese language for administering in Hong Kong. The cultural practices in Hong Kong of
treating boys and girls differently in performance reflected no gender differences. The practice of boys and
girls being lined up in two separate lines according to their scores in examinations for equal number of
central allocation in Hong Kong was replaced by a law suit won by Equal Opportunity Commission against
Education Department using unfair secondary school placement for girls who excelled boys in 2001.
Therefore, from 2002 onwards, the girls lined in one line with boys and performing well could not be
excluded and thus girls outperformed boys in verbal ideation. Overall gender differences were due to
secondary sub example, which means that girls in junior high grades were significantly affected by
introduction of sex discrimination ordinance to school setting. It might also be possibly due to direct
personal experience of girls with new sex-fair practice of secondary school placement in junior high grades.
Therefore, it is believed that under the environment designed suitable for equal opportunity for both sexes,
girls can outscore boys in creative performance. The studies on development trend in creativity between
boys and girls by using electronic WCKT have shown that in grade 4 to 6, boys had marginally higher
creativity scores whereas in grade 7 and 8, girls overtook boys in verbal and figural creativity scores(Lau &
Cheung,2010). For better understanding of development in children and adolescents, social and personal
factors should be taken into consideration. Two distinct development patterns were seen for primary
graders and the secondary graders (Lau & Cheung, 2010). The creativity (as measured by verbal and figural
fluency, flexibility, uniqueness and unusualness) of primary school students increased from grade 4 to grade
5 and later decreased from grade 5 to 6. For secondary school students, creativity increased from grade 7 to
grade 9 with a drop from grade 6 to grade 7. Increasing patterns of creativity development have also been
found in other cultures and places (Claxton
et al
., 2005; Lopez
et al
., 1993).
5. Conclusion
Affective and cognitive processes in play in young children are predictive of similar processes in fantasy and
of divergent thinking and these are stable overtime. Affect in play scores is valid in predicting divergent
thinking and similar processes on Affect in Fantasy play. Play interventions can result in improved play
skills that continue post interventions. The improvements in cognitive play skills such as organization and
imagination may assist in indirect improvement of play skills. The use of booster sessions may also be
supportive in maintaining gains in play skills.
There is considerable evidence that play particularly pretend or symbolic play involving objects or other
children has a role in particular kinds of learning. The studies on play, cognition and self-regulation is of
significance for play within educational settings as it influences the effortful and intentional learning
involved in the development of problem solving and creativity skills. The importance of self-regulation in
children’s learning significantly helps teachers of young children to interact more productivity in playful
conditions.
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Pretend Play Enhances Creativity and Imagination
ShalluSansanwal
Early pretend play behaviors are related to performance on verbally oriented divergent thinking tasks.
Gender differences have been observed for realistic role-play at age five and for picture production tasks in
early adolescence and girls performed better than boys in both measures. The trends in creativity
development showed increasing trend across primary and secondary school years and these trends were
similar in other cultures and places. Large-scale studies with broad age and grade ranges have shown an
increase of creativity with age/grade whereas small scale with narrow ranges in age/grade has shown a
decrease in creativity. The ability of early creative play behaviors has been demonstrated to predict the
creativity in early adolescence.
6. Future research
Cognitive process like divergent thinking was predictable of creativity. Affect fantasy and emotions are also
a part of these creative processes but research still needs to establish a significant relationship of play
facilitating positive affect and the positive affect increasing creativity. Creativity is measured more in terms
of cognitive processes. Though many studies support the evidence of gender differences in development of
creativity, role of emotions and gender differences are yet to be established. When the divergent thinking
tasks are divided into verbal and non-verbal performance tasks there are differences in the elementary
school level but these differences are not visible in secondary grades and late adolescence period. Affect
Play Scale was used for measuring creativity but failed to reveal any differences on the gender in pretend
play and divergent thinking tasks. This scale has also been found to show no significant relationship with
imagination score and also no correlation with creativity elements in tasks like story telling. This leaves a
gap in our understanding that how imagination and certain aspects of pretend play is related to prediction
of later life creative thinking and problem solving.
Creativity is said to be developing in a continuum with brief periods of peaks and slumps in development
through childhood to early adolescence. Researchers have studied these slumps but more studies are
required to record slump in stages other than 5 years of age. Longitudinal studies are required to establish
how play facilitates creativity over time and what aspects of play; cognitive processes, emotions and
imagination are involved in this process. Sample size studied should be large enough to carry out a
substantial statistical analysis. The role of emotions needs to be explored in the pretend play as increasing
their emotional understanding and ability to regulate emotions enhances children’s subjective well-being.
The studies on pretend play interventions were carried out with a small sample size. Secondly, the use of
different examiners to deliver interventions might have contributed to a differential effect. Therefore, it is
possible that examiners might have delivered the intervention inconsistently. The testing conditions were
poor and may have interfered with quality of assessment. The variability in time from intervention was also
a limiting factor in this study as follow up study was done 2-8 months.
7. Limitations
In the study of developmental trends of creativity, index scores in grade 4 were generally as low as grade 7.
It was uncertain whether or not where there was a fourth grade slump as grade 3 students were not
included in study. During the studies of early pretend play behaviors and creativity in adolescence,
behavior of target child may be influenced by the other child of age 5 with whom he or she has been paired
during free play session. The difference in social interaction between two children during play session may
have affected the observed pretend play behaviors. The creativity tasks at follow up in early adolescence
were obtained by mail and it might have been possible that parents or other children might have assisted in
completing the creativity measures. Measure of intelligence was not included in the analysis. It is possible
that controlling for differences in intelligence may have resulted in a different pattern of results.
The studies on pretend play, creativity and affect in fantasy have several limitations including small sample
size limiting statistical power of analyses. It is always difficult to get the consent of parents for longitudinal
studies. The results of studies needs to be replicated with a lager samples before definitive and statistical
significant conclusion be drawn. The measure of coping in the study was a self-report only and did not
involve actual coping behavior.
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Journal of Arts and Humanities (JAH), Volume -3, No.-1, January, 2014
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Journal of Arts and Humanities (JAH), Volume -3, No.-1, January, 2014
Table 1
Study Characteristics
Sr.
no
Study
Sample Size
Follow-up
Sample Size
Age
Range
Measures Used
Outcomes
Total
Boys
Girls
Total
Boys
Girls
1
Moore
&
Russ
(2008
)
50
20
30
45
-
-
6- to
8-yrs
Affect Play
Scale (APS)
Alternate Use
Test (AUT)
Kusche
Affective
Interview-
Revised (KAI-
R)
Emotional
Regulation
Checklist (ERC)
Multidimension
al Student Life
Satisfaction
Scale (MSLSS)
Positive &
Negative Affect
Schedule for
Children
Play
Interventions
improve play
processes and
cognitive
processes in
long term.
Play
interventions
did not show
any variation in
subjective well-
being and
emotion
regulation
ability.
Life satisfaction
in children is
related to mood
& positive
affect & it can
be measured.
2
Russ
et
al.,(19
99)
121
-
-
31
17
14
6- to
11-yrs
APS
AUT
Affect in
Fantasy Task
Significant
correlation of
affect in play
and divergent
thinking.
Affect in
fantasy was
also related to
divergent
thinking.
Pretend play in
early years is
predictive of
later life
creative
thinking.
3
Russ
&Kau
gars
(2000
-
2001)
80
-
-
-
-
-
6-to
7-yrs
APS
Self –rating of
mood
Negative affect
in play is
increased by
instruction
Play can alters
mood
Negative affect
does not
facilitate
creativity
4
White
bread
et al.,
(2009
)
582
even
ts
-
-
-
-
-
3-to
5yrs
Analytical
model of self
regulation
Pretend play or
symbolic play
develops
metacognitive
and self-
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Journal of Arts and Humanities (JAH), Volume -3, No.-1, January, 2014
regulatory
development
skills that in
turn help in
development of
creativity and
problem
solving skills.
5
Claxto
n et
al.,
(2005
)
184
85
99
124
57
67
9 to
12yrs
Creativity
Assessment
Packet
Divergent
thinking and
divergent
feeling
increases over
a period of
time.
Creativity like
personality is
developed over
the period of
time through
adolescence.
Table 1
Study Characteristics
Sr.
no
Study
Sample Size
Follow-up
Sample Size
Age
Range
Measures
Used
Outcomes
Total
Boys
Girls
Total
Boys
Girls
6
Mullineaux
&Dilalla,
2009
127
120
54
66
5- to
15-
yrs
Realistic
Role Play
Rating at
the age of 5
Alternative
Use Test at
age of 10
Test of
Creative
Thinking-
Drawing
Production
Realistic role-
playing is the
predictor of later
life creativity.
Girls engage in
more pretend
play and fantasy
behavior than
boys
Girls at the age of
8to 10 are more
organized and
elaborate in
drawings.
7
Cheung &
Lau, 2010
2476
1222
1254
10-
to15-
yrs
Electronic
Wallach-
Kogan
creativity
Test
Gender
differences
prevalent
Boys are more in
verbal skills in
elementary
schools
Girls are more
scoring on verbal
and fluency
scores.
8
Sing &
Cheung,
2010
2476
10-
to15-
yrs
Electronic
Wallach-
Kogan
creativity
Test
There are
periods of lags
and spurts in
creativity
development.
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Pretend Play Enhances Creativity and Imagination
ShalluSansanwal
Gender
differences are
also their.
Girls in grade 7
to8yrs excelled
boys in verbal
and fluency
scores and also
in uniqueness
and unusualness.
9
Saracho
(1992)
300
150
150
3- to
5-yrs
Plat Rating
Scale (PRS)
Preschool
Embedded
Figure Test
(PEFT)
FI (Field
Independent) &
FD(Field
Dependent)
children differ
significantly in
cognitive styles
FI children
engage more in
play activities
FI children have
higher analytical
and cognitive
skills
FI children
engage more in
social play
behavior
exhibiting
cognitive
flexibility.
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