Structural Parallels Between Pretend Play and Narratives

Pretend play productions of 46 children from 4 through 8 years of age were analyzed using a story grammar. Results showed structural parallels between pretend play and stories for 76% of Ss. Older Ss' play was Episodic (story-like); younger Ss' play was Preepisodic . Given structural paral...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Developmental psychology 1989-09, Vol.25 (5), p.736-743
Main Authors:	Eckler, Judith A, Weininger, Otto
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Biological and medical sciences Child development Childhood Play Behavior Children & youth development of language Developmental psychology Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Human Language Pretend Play psycholinguistics Psychology Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry Psychology. Psychophysiology Recreation story grammar Text Structure
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Summary:	Pretend play productions of 46 children from 4 through 8 years of age were analyzed using a story grammar. Results showed structural parallels between pretend play and stories for 76% of Ss. Older Ss' play was Episodic (story-like); younger Ss' play was Preepisodic . Given structural parallels, a play complexity measure was established on the basis of the semantic link between Episodes. Preepisodic play was also differentiated. There were strong correlations between age and play level, and age and play length in Episodes. But number of propositions per episode remained constant at approximately 6. Ss' verbalizations explicated two aspects of pretend, setting-up and play, and some Ss indicated a preference. The authors conclude with a discussion about the relationship between play's form and function. Story grammar analysis proved a valid tool for studying play's structure within a developmental framework.
ISSN:	0012-1649 1939-0599