The Relevance of Fantasy Play for Development in Young Children

Fantasy play seems to develop in a fairly regular way as children get older. J. Piaget was one of the first psychologists to describe this in detail, and since then several other investigators have described the changes which occur up to 21/2 or 3 years of age. Older children engage in more role play than object-fantasy play, and in more socially interactive pretend play. However, after the age of 6 or 7 years, symbolic play generally becomes less frequent as children engage more in rule-governed games such as hop-scotch, tag and football. Several psychologists have attempted to draw closer parallels between the development of pretend play and the development of language. Whatever the link between symbolic play and language production or comprehension, there is another parallel with written, narrative language. Fantasy and socio dramatic play episodes are themselves acted-out narratives or stories.