Pretend Play: Young Children’s Acceptance of a Make-Believe Situation

Background. Despite the development of the concept of play in cultural-historical and activity theory, the issues of playing at an early age remain poorly understood. The present work is aimed at filling this gap. Objectives. To study the acceptance of a make-believe situation by children of 1.5–3 years old. Study Participants. 29 children: 16 boys (55%) and 13 girls (45%), 1.5–4 years old (from 18 months to 48 months; M = 27.5, SD = 7.86). 181 video cases, including 157 free plays at home, 24 videos with an experimental situation. Methods. Structured video observation of free play and play in an experimental situation; questioning of parents. Results. A number of play actions (mainly related to speech) are less common in play of children by 1.5–3 years old than in play of children by 3 to 4 years old; they also have less variety of play actions. At the same time, children by 1.5 to 3 years old use object substitution, act in accordance with a make-believe situation, use role-play talk and role-play dialogues, are capable of play interaction and initiative in play actions. The number of play activities a child performs is related to his/her speech development and to how much support his/her pretend play is provided by his/her close adults. Conclusions. The main criterion of pretend play is a make-believe situation, which is observed in the play of young children. Therefore, a pretend role play (with a make-believe situation) can be presented as a single line of development throughout early and preschool age. At the same time, an adult has a significant influence on the emergence and development of play in a child of 1.5 to 3 years old, therefore, it is extremely important to involve adults caring for young children in the space of joint play with the child.