Quality of pre-school children’s pretend play and subsequent development of semantic organization and narrative re-telling skills

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated if the quality of pre-school children's pretend play predicted their semantic organization and narrative re-telling ability when they were in early primary school. It was hypothesized that the elaborateness of a child's play and the child's use of symbols in play were predictors of their semantic organization and narrative re-tell scores of the School Age Oral Language Assessment.

Method: Forty-eight children were assessed using the Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment when they were aged 4–5 years. Three-to-five years after this assessment their semantic organization and narrative re-telling skills were assessed.

Result: Results indicate that the elaborateness of a child's play and their ability to use symbols was predictive of semantic organization skills. Use of symbols in play was the strongest play predictor of narrative re-telling skills. The quality of a pre-school child's ability to elaborate complex sequences in pretend play and use symbols predicted up to 20% of a child's semantic organization and narrative re-telling skills up to 5 years later.

Conclusion: The study provides evidence that the quality of pretend play in 4–5 year olds is important for semantic organization and narrative re-telling abilities in the school-aged child.

Keywords::

• Pretend play
• narrative re-tell
• semantic organization

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. The research was funded through a full time university scholarship to the first author.