Play on: Retrospective Reports of the Persistence of Pretend Play Into Middle Childhood

Children Adopt the Traits of Characters in a Narrative

“…Both 7-and 10-year-olds adopted the traits of a character in a narrative despite the fact that theory of mind skills, which might be important for taking the perspective of a character, continue to improve across middle childhood. This finding is in line with previous research showing that even young children take the perspective of characters in a narrative and in their pretend play [17][18][19][21][22][23]. Future research should investigate whether even preschoolers might also adopt characters' traits, both in a narrative context and in pretense.…”

“…Pretend play is a distinguishing feature of both early [17] and middle childhood, with research showing that children engage in pretend play until 11 years of age on average [18]. To the extent that engagement in narratives is an extension of children's pretense (possibly because both experiences involve imagining the world from someone else's point of view [19]), children may be more likely than adults to become intensely absorbed in narratives and, in line with research with adults [4,5,20], may be more likely to be affected by these experiences.…”

Exploring the Play of Middle Childhood Children in a Poor Community in the North West Province: Caregivers’ Experiences

“…Although they still enjoy elements of fantasy, the logic in games and play now becomes the focus of interest (Sobel, 2002). A study by Smith and Lillard (2012) reported that children would stop engaging in pretend play around 11 years of age; this correlates with the finding in this study.…”

Fanfiction as imaginary play: What fan-written stories can tell us about the cognitive science of fiction

“…Mar et al (2011) found that some people do daydream about fictional characters-and that this type of daydream is correlated with self-reported loneliness and negatively correlated with social support. In an investigation of pretend play beyond early childhood, Smith and Lillard (2012) found that 38 percent of college students reported that they still pretend, with 9 percent of the reported pretending episodes involving content from legends, cartoons, or other forms of fictional stories. For example, one adult participant reported passing the time on his train ride home by ''pretending to be Jason Bourne, from The Bourne Identity'' (Smith and Lillard, 2012, p. 541).…”