Nonliterality Of Play

Play can be defined in many different ways, but the focus in this essay is to define pretend play and how it can be beneficial to various aspects of a child’s development. Psychologists have suggested that there are 4 criteria that an occurrence has to meet in order to be classified generally as play. The first being that the play is being done so for ‘intrinsic motivation’ and isn’t being done for anything bar the enjoyment and stimulation it produces. The second is the ‘nonliterality’ or pretend element. This principle is derived from the idea that a child’s behaviour, when playing, has no literality to it. The third criteria is the ‘positive affect’ which is the happiness and pleasure that is brought about from playing, and the fourth and
The first is the ‘play ethos’ which means that play is essential for the development of a young child, and the actions are what lead to the developmental outcomes. The second approach is called ‘equifinality’ and this is that play isn’t the only thing that contributes to a child’s development, there are other factors involved (Lillard et al., 2013; Pellegrini, 2009; Smith, 2010). The third and final theoretical position is ‘epiphenomenon’, and the defining principle of this is that play does not directly contribute to development and it is instead a concoction of other abilities (Smith,
The children then filled out a relative intelligence questionnaire (Saltz, Dixon & Johnson, 1977). The results showed that those who engaged in the fantastical play scored higher on the intelligence questionnaires than the other two groups, which suggests that pretend play has a positive effect on the development of a child’s