From: Jane Doe
Email:
Course: CD 170: Cognition
College: San Jose State University
Instructor: Eugene Matusov
ClassWeb: http://www.ematusov.com/cd170
ChildrenObservations: No
Date: 08 May 1997
Time: 22:33:49
Remote Name: ppp-206-170-2-172.sntc01.pacbell.net
How does pretend play have an influence on cognitive development? What type of transformations does a young child go through before pretend play occurs? I chose this topic because I was interested in learning more about how young children think, act, and imagine as well as, how pretend play leads to creativity.
How Do Young Children Think?
As a child shifts from infancy to early childhood, their mental development begins to change through what we know as pretend play. Children at this point begin to treat one thing as if it were another. For example, if a child wants to stir a cup of coffee, he or she may use a twig and/or maybe comb a doll’s hair with a toy rake. A child may see an object, such as a hairbrush, and suddenly pretend it’s an alien ship flying through the universe. Children begin to give names and character to inanimate objects and make up environments to accommodate the world they are forming through their imagination. Children tend to model what they see in their environment whether that be through parents, siblings, peers and/or the media. Children have a tendency to act out actions they see others do. For instance, if a child sees his or her mother stirring a cup of coffee, he or she may act out the same action, but use another object to represent the spoon that is not present. To understand pretend play in children, it is important to first study their minds and probe into their way of thinking. Second, one needs to look at the way children use symbolic, imaginary, and mental representation of objects. Third, look at how pretend play leads to creativity in young children.
One of the most influential theorists responsible for uncovering cognitive development and pretend play was Piaget. Piaget’s six stages of the sensorimotor period of development helps to explain the correlation between cognitive development and pretend play. Instead of discussing each stage separately, I would like to only focus on stages five and six of Piaget’s sensorimotor period. I want to show a comparison of cognitive development between an infant and a pre-schooler. First of all, during stage five (12-18 months), an infant explores his or her environment through a trial and error process, this is where the child repeats actions that are of interest to him or her and perform early forms of problem solving. For example, a child may pick up a ball and drop it and repeatedly pick it up and drop it. Yet, at this age the child can not imagine actions and/or the consequences of such actions. Once the child finally reaches stage six (18-24 months), a child can carry out actions mentally and think about objects that are not necessarily present. "The child begins to represent their world symbolically as they transform and invent objects and roles" (http://www.childplace.com). For example, a child can stir a cup and give it to someone else. He or she can carry out an action and take on roles at this stage (Cole, 1993). It is at this point, that children begin to engage in pretend play.
As children make the transition from stage six of the sensorimotor period to Piaget’s preoperational stage, some differences begin to surface. At the peroperational stage, children can represent reality to themselves by using symbols. They start using such symbols as mental images, words, and/or gestures to represent an object that may not be present. "One of the major accomplishments during this period is the development of language, the ability to think and communicate by using words that represent objects and events" (http://tech.uh.edu/hdcs/piaget.htm). For example, I could remember as a young child transforming my Big Wheel into an ice-cream machine. I would turn over my Big Wheel, sit on it and rotate the front wheel as if I was making ice-cream. As I sat on my Big Wheel I used to say, "Push the button, Pull the string, Out comes chocolate ice-cream." Making ice-cream with my make believe ice-cream machine was my way of representing reality. This particular incident demonstrates my ability to be creative with objects that were available to me. A child during the sensorimotor period doesn’t have the ability to be creative, but can act out actions and/or roles he or she has seen in his or her environment. In the sensorimotor period, these children are unable to see things from another person’s point of view. They are still quite egocentristic with their thinking. Everything the child sees is through his or her personal magnifying glass. What might be the reason children during the sensorimotor period think differently than during the preoperational stage? Children just starting out have not been exposed to many experiences and their brain is not as matured, yet they can pretend play. Young children during the sensorimotor period do take information in, but don’t have the cognitive ability to make something up on their own. Their actions are from things seen by others in their environment and are limited to what they see.
How and Why Do Children Use Symbolic Representation?
One behavior observed during pretend play is symbolic play. This is when one object represents another for example, a banana as a telephone. "Children begin to represent their world symbolically as they transform and invent objects and roles" (www.childplace.com). A child may see for example, a mother talking on the telephone and then the child begins to use a banana as a telephone. During symbolic play, children learn how to use one object to represent another. "Children acquire skills that allow them to separate the meaning of an object from the object itself and to give identities to objects other than their actual ones" (as cited in Boyatzis & Watson, 1993; p. 729).
Why Do Children Use Gestures To Represent An Object Not Present?
Three and four year olds tend to use body parts to represent a particular object. Why do children as young as three and four do this? They don’t have the cognitive ability to imitate imaginary objects. Five year old children seem to be more advanced in their competence level than a three year old. For example, if a child is asked to pretend to brush with a toothbrush, a three or four year old will use their finger as a toothbrush when objects are not present (Boyatzis & Watson, 1993). On the other hand, a five year old will pretend he or she is holding a toothbrush and therefore, he or she is using imaginary representation (Boyatzis & Watson, 1993). This clearly suggests that young children do have difficulty performing symbolic acts beyond their competence level. It is also quite apparent that young children have problems in mimicking gestures when actual objects are unavailable and/or just modeled to them. There seems to be a strong relation between the child’s age and the gestures he or she uses. When children first begin to pretend play, they can only perform one single action at a time (Cole, 1993). When children are young, they can not concentrate on more than one thing and are unable to think logically.
It is true as mentioned above, that children as young as three are egocentristic and it is difficult for them to perform tasks more advanced than their abilities. As children develop cognitively, they are incorporating new experiences into their already existing pattern of actions (Crain, 1992). Children learn to modify already existing patterns of actions, so they can incorporate and/or adapt to that new experience. "The abilities to engage in symbolic play and to imitate other peoples’ actions provides circumstantial evidence that children become able to engage in the psychological process called mental representation by the middle of the second year" (Cole, 1993; p. 222). Here, "children carry out actions, take on roles, and transform objects as they express their ideas and feelings about the social world" (www.earlychildhood.com/articles/art spaar.html). Children use symbolic play as a way of learning about their environment for example, through family members, friends, and media.
Imaginary Mental Representation
Children at the age of three are not cognitively developed to understand how imagining something is not necessarily true. They think that everything is real to them. "Although children understood that knowledge represents something real and more truthful than imagination, three year olds often claimed that imagination reflected reality" (Wellman& Woolley, 1993). "Preschoolers also use imaginative play to express and work through their emotions" (http://www.ctw.org/0396/039606t1.htm). In a particular experiment, children were given a chance to look into an empty box. They were asked at four separate occasions to imagine one of four different objects such as, a button, crayon, peanut, or a spoon. The child was then asked if the object really was in the box. The children were also asked if they and/or the experimenter could imagine something inside of the empty box. The purpose was to see if by imagining something inside the box could influence children’s willingness to claim that their imagination was thought of as being real. If children as young as three are asked to imagine something in the box, they will believe that such objects are really in the box. In the end, three year olds saw imaginary representation as being true and real (Wellman & Woolley, 1993). Children this age don’t have the ability to think logically and things will seem real to them. For instance, young children who see inanimate characters on the television will believe they are actually real. They don’t have the ability to distinguish between what is real and what is not. "Children use imaginative play to learn about the world around them" http://family.starwave.com/experts/faull/archive/fa030496.html).
Action or Mental Representation
Not until age four, do children clearly understand mental representation and pretense. Children as young as two years old demonstrate pretend play and in order to do that, they require some understanding of mental representation (Lillard, 1993). In order for mental representation to occur, a child must have some idea of what something is before he or she can pretend to do something in particular. For example, if a child pretends that a Lego is a car, the child is using his or her own personal representation of a car and the Lego is used to represent the car. Pretense usually can’t occur without any mental representation of something. Before this can occur a child needs to have an idea of what a car for example, is before he or she can actually pretend to play with one. "When a child acquires the ability to pretend herself, she simultaneously acquires the ability to understand pretense in others" (Lillard, 1993; p. 373). Pretense does not necessarily need actions, but needs mental representations in order for it to occur.
So, do children as young as three have the ability to understand mental representation? I personally believe that a three year old has the ability to understand mental representation because he or she has the ability to pretend that a particular object can be something else. My three year old nephew for example, does not have access to a hairbrush, but he has a mental representation of it and can pretend that a Lego is his hair brush. My nephew has an understanding of pretense because he used an object (Lego) to represent the hair brush that was not present. If he didn’t have the mental representation of the hair brush in the first place, he wouldn’t be able to represent it by using something else.
Pretend play provides support on Vygotsky’s idea that play creates a zone of proximal development. With the zone of proximal development it is believed to show a higher level of competence in children when they have help from someone who has a higher competence level as well (Cole, 1993). Pretending can influence a child’s ability to reason deductively (Cole, 1993). Piaget was one theorist that felt that children can’t solve logical problems until they are much older. Here is a problem: "All fish live in trees. Tot is a fish. Does Tot live in the water". Will children say that Tot lives in the water, is not a fish, or something else? Half of the children were given this problem without pretending while the other half were given a task of a "let’s pretend" (Cole, 1993). These children were told to pretend that the experimenter was from another planet and wanted to know if Tot lived in the water. The first group of children told the experimenter that Tot lives in the water because they know that’s true because fish live in the water. These children went further to give reasons why they state that Tot lives in the water. They did so by drawing upon their own knowledge of where fish usually live. On the other hand, the children who were pretending, gave supportive answers to why Tot lives in a tree. For example, the children explained that Tot lives in a tree because they were pretending that the fish lives in the tree. As a result, when children are introduced to a problem involving "let’s pretend," their problem-solving abilities seem to be more enhanced than those children not pretending (Cole, 1993). One can say this is similar to Piaget’s philosophy of assimilation and accommodation. Children are incorporating new information into their already existing schemas and/or creating new schemas to fit their existing knowledge of things.
After reading the above, I decided to see what my five year old niece would say in regards to this "let’s pretend" problem. She told me that Tot does live in the water because it’s a fish and if it’s not in water, it will die. Her answer was based on her knowledge of fish, where they live and what they need to survive. She knew what the word pretend meant, but she based her answer on personal knowledge rather on "just pretend".
Pretend Play and Theory of Mind
Children use their cognitive structures to operate in both the pretend and real world. Pretend play allows children to understand information they’ve received from their environment (Sheer, 1997). Children seem to be more competent in tasks that involve pretend play scenarios. For example, a child during pretense takes on the hair brush as being a spaceship. He or she must pretend in order for mental representation to take place. At this point, the child believes that what is being pretended is different from reality. In this situation, the hairbrush is the reality and the pretender is representing the spaceship, rather than the hair brush. The child then projects a spaceship off onto the hair brush. The child has the idea that the spaceship is a hair brush and he or she knows that he or she is only pretending. Children who are very young don’t have the ability to pretend what something is and understand the concept. As a child matures cognitively they have an understanding in pretending.
Conclusion
As children pretend play they end up pretending that one thing is something else and take on the pretend identity as well, as the real identity of an object in mind. This occurs when one object is representing two things at once. Children use their imagination to make an object represent something else. For instance, a child may be playing in the sand and he or she is pretending that clumps of sand are pancakes. The sand is called pancakes and the child acts out as if pretending to eat the pancakes. When a child is not pretending, objects usually do not represent something else.
Play is important in a child’s cognitive development. It is important to understand how young children think before looking into how pretend play influences cognitive development. Pretend play can occur through the use of symbolic, imaginary, and/or mental representation of objects. This all depends on the age and level of competence of the child. A young child may use an object to represent something else, but he or she is still egocentristic and can’t see things from another person’s point of view. For example, if a child is asked to pretend there are crayons in an empty box and then asked if a "stuffed bear" thinks there are crayons in the box, he or she will say there are crayons in the box because the child thinks there really are crayons in the box. He or she can not see things from another person’s point of view and the child doesn’t have the ability to think logically quite yet.
I feel that looking into Cognitive Development can only be beneficial to the child because it encourages the child to be creative when he or she is using an object to represent another. I also understand that children learn through play and what is a better way of beginning the process of thinking logically. They don’t necessarily think logically during the pre-school age, but the stages children go through are the building blocks for further advanced cognitive development. After researching how pretend play influences cognitive development, I learned that pretend play stems from observing others. Children are taking in valuable information every day and learning to be creative individuals. By children using different types of play, they can also overcome stressful situations that may not be pleasant to them. Pretend play is the backbone to where creativity begins. It is important for children to be creative because it gives children a sense of control, promotes self-esteem, promotes new ideas and experiences and gives them a chance to learn new things. Creativity prevails through pretend play activities such as, dramatic play, storytelling, and puppetry.
References
Boyatzis, C., Watson, M. (1993) Preschool children’s symbolic representation of objects through gestures. Child Development, 64, 729-735.
Cole, M. (1993). The development of the child. (pp. 222, 316-331) New York, NY: W.H. Freman and Company.
Crain, W. (1992). Theories of development concepts and applications (pp. 100-118). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Faull, J. (1996). Facts on fantasy. (http://family.starwave.com/experts/faull/archive/fa030496.html)
Fernie, D. The nature of children’s play. (http://www.childplace.com).
Lillard, A. (1993) Young children’s conceptualization of pretense: Actions or mental representational state? Child Development, 64, 372-373.
Ross, K. Creativity. (1996). (http://www.ctw.org/0396/039606t1.htm)
Schomburg, R. Using Symbolic Play Abilities to Assess Academic Readiness. (http://www.earlychildhood.com/articles/art spaar.html).
Scheer, L. (1997). The magical world of make-believe. (http://www.ctw.org/0696/069602t1.htm).
Wellman, H., & Woolley, J. (1993) Origins and truth: Young children’s understanding of imaginary mental representation. Child Development, 64, 1-17.
Author Unknown. Piaget’s Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development. (http://tech.uh.edu/hdcs/piaget.htm).