The influence of pretend play on the cognitive and emotional development of children 3-4 years old

Introduction. Play is the leading activity of preschool age, and play with an imaginary situation (pretend play) is considered as the most significant type of play for children’s mental development, which allows this type of play to be used in the educational process as a means of teaching and developing preschool children. The purpose of this article was to assess the impact of pretend play on the cognitive and emotional development of children 3-4 years old. We assumed that (1) the play can influence the development of executive functions, imagination and understanding of emotions in children 3-4 years old, (2) the influence of the play can be different depending on which developmental mechanisms it contains more involved. Materials and methods. To test the hypotheses, a training controlled experiment design was developed. As an experimental intervention series of play sessions with an adult were conducted. Before and after the experimental intervention, the level of development of executive functions, imagination and understanding of emotions was assessed. 39 children aged 3-4 years took part in the play sessions. Play sessions were video recorded for later analysis. Results. The data obtained were analyzed in two stages. First, the results of the pre- and post-test in the experimental and control groups were compared. At the second stage, the analysis of video recordings was carried out in order to control the influence of the child's ability to stay in the play context. Thus, the test results of the same children before and after participating in the experiment (Student's paired t-test) were compared. Significant differences were identified in the indicator “Understanding the external causes of emotions” of the Test of Emotion Comprehension and the “Elaboration” of the test for imagination. Analysis of variance with control of the level of development of hot self-regulation in children at the time of participation in the experiment confirmed that the type of experimental exposure is a significant factor affecting the development of the ability to understand the external causes of emotions (F(1.36) = 3.87, p = 0.030, n2 = 0.035). Analysis of video recordings showed that children in both playing conditions to a large extent were involved in the playing and, as expected, in their play there was an emphasis on the meanings of human activity, the relationship between the characters and their feelings. The results of the conducted training experiment as a whole showed a low effectiveness of the pretend play impact even in conditions with active participation of the adult. Conclusion. The age of 3-4 years is the initial stage of the formation of both the pretend play itself, and such mental functions as imagination, self-regulation and understanding of emotions. The results of the training experiment generally showed the low effectiveness of the play influence even in conditions of active participation of the experimenter in the play. We can conclude that when planning to use the play for developmental purposes, it is important to take into account the age and individual zone of proximal development available to the child. This will allow to understand what format of pretend play with and what adult’s interventions will be most effective.