“Let’s pretend to be…” is commonly heard from young children as they play and interact at school, daycare, or at home. Many adults encourage imagination and creativity but others are afraid that ...

Pretend play that involves uses of the imagination to create a fantasy world or situation can be fun for preschool children, but a new study finds that it is not as crucial to a child's development as ...

Pretend play begins around 2 years of age, increases around 3-4 years of age, and declines again around 6 years of age, at which time children begin transitioning to playing more games with rules ...

From developing social skills to fostering creativity, pretend play in young children is likened to being a "metaphoric multivitamin" in an editorial published in the journal Neuroscience and ...

Preschool-age children are most engaged in pretend play 10–15 minutes after playing begins. In addition, girls exhibit higher organizational skills, according to a study conducted by researchers from ...

Researchers say there is evidence infants are exploring the world of make-believe before they're even aware they are doing it. A new study exploring the origins of pretend play suggests infants ...

Julia Wolf analyzes the importance of pretend play for exploring the development of social cognition. The ability to adopt another person’s perspective is important for social cognition and, ...

The new picture book celebrates friendship, imagination, counting, animal sounds, and the joy of pretend play. Author Nicola Burley announces the release of Savannah and Jude Play Pretend, a ...

A new study exploring the origins of pretend play suggests infants perform interactional patterns with elements of pretense a lot earlier than thought. Pretend play is often considered a developmental ...