Future directions for doll play narrative research: A commentary

Abstract

Past research into doll play narratives has been productive in elucidating children's inner experiences, their determinants, and their role in child behaviour problems. The current volume takes this work forward in several directions: first, it indicates the value of designing story stems and coding schemes to address more specific questions about the developmental process of specific syndromes. Second, contributions demonstrate the “added value” provided by children's narratives, over and above information derived from other sources. Third, this recent research enhances our understanding of the role of parental representations and states of mind in influencing children's narratives; how these may come to influence child functioning via co-constructed parent – child dialogues is an important area for future research. Finally, possibilities of extending the clinical utility of doll play narratives are explored.

Keywords:

• Doll-play
• parent – child interactions
• narratives
• child psychopathology
• interventions

Acknowledgements

The research of the author and her colleagues described in this paper is supported by the UK Medical Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Health Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.