Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The role of pretend play on children’s cognitive development has garnered interest recently. This study examines theefficacy of a pretend play intervention on the self-regulation and language skills of four- to five-year-olds. Pretend playincludes a pretender projecting a mental representation onto reality. The sample consisted of 60 children who wererandomized into two groups: (a) Pretend play; and (b) Art activities. The intervention included sixteen 30-minute sessionsover 13 weeks, in groups of six children. Each session included: (1) storybook reading; (2) role-playing; and (3) review.During storybook reading explicit phonological awareness and vocabulary instruction were provided for 18 words in eachbook. Role-playing involved giving children props to partake in pretend play. Review consisted of revising the PA andvocabulary of the target words. The improvements that occurred in the children’s self-regulation and language skillscontribute to a better understanding of pretend play in educational settings.