Author : Karla K. Fehr
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 115 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (116 download)
Book Synopsis A Brief Pretend Play Intervention to Facilitate Play and Creativity in Preschool Children by : Karla K. Fehr
Download or read book A Brief Pretend Play Intervention to Facilitate Play and Creativity in Preschool Children written by Karla K. Fehr and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pretend play has been associated with creativity in the research literature. In school-aged children, both cognitive and affective processes in play have been related to measures of creativity, including divergent thinking and creative storytelling. In the only previous examination of these play processes in preschool-aged children, cognitive and affective play processes related to divergent thinking. One goal of the current study was to replicate this finding and examine the relationship between pretend play and storytelling creativity in a preschool sample. A second goal was to test the effectiveness of a brief play intervention implemented within a preschool setting. Adult-led play interventions have effectively improved play skills and related developmental skills for children with documented play deficits. There is a need for an empirically-based, brief play intervention for typically developing preschool-aged children. As pretend play peaks during the preschool years, a play facilitation intervention implemented during these key years could have a large impact on a child’s pretend play and development. A pilot study adapted the intervention developed by Russ and colleagues for use with preschool-aged children and their parents and found medium to large effect sizes for increased play skills for the intervention group at outcome. The current study aimed to examine the effectiveness of this intervention for children within a preschool setting without parental involvement.Forty-one typically developing children participated from a local preschool. Pretend play, divergent thinking, and creative storytelling were assessed at baseline and outcome. Children were randomly assigned to the play skills intervention group or the active control group. All children received three 20-30 minute individual play sessions with a researcher. At baseline, results were that cognitive and affective processes in play related to divergent thinking and creative storytelling. The play intervention was not effective at significantly improving the pretend play skills or subsequent creativity for children in the intervention group compared to children in the control group. Reasons for the nonsignfiicant findings for the intervention and suggestions for future refinement and use with the intervention protocol are discussed.