Improving young children's self-regulation skills in pretend play in the digital age

Over the past two decades, the role of technology in children's education has evolved from scepticism to widespread integration into the educational process. However, there are no clear guidelines on how to properly integrate the digital tools in early childhood education settings. Therefore, we examined the relationship between age, pretend play skills, and self-regulation. We hypothesized that pretend play skills mediate the relationship between age and self-regulation, and that the strength of this indirect effect has declined over the past decade, potentially due to the increasing influence of digital technologies in early childhood contexts. The data consists of two cross-sectional samples collected from 2014 and 2024. In 2014, the study was conducted in 64 early childhood education institutions and included 349 children. In 2024, the sample comprised 344 children from 69 institutions in Lithuania. Teachers assessed the play and self-regulation skills of children aged 2 to 7 years using the Child's Play and Self-Regulation (CP&SR) Checklist. The results confirm that pretend play skills continue to be linked to self-regulation even after a decade of increasing digitalization. The relationship between children's age and self-regulation in play is mediated by pretend play skills in both the 2014 and 2024 samples. Thus, we argue that pretend play may serve as an important external resource for supporting self-regulation in early childhood education. Digital technologies can also be integrated into pretend play by creating imaginary digital scenarios based on children's themes and interests; however, further research in this area is needed.