The Importance Of Symbolic Play In Children

In a study by Nader-Grosbois and Vieillevoye, (Nader-Grosbois & Vieillevoye, 2012), 40 children were assessed on their play skills and their behavior during play. Half of the children assessed were diagnosed with intellectual disabilities, whereas the other half of the participants were typically developing children. The participants’ chronological ages varied from 2 to 13 years of age, while their mental ages were similar, two to six years of age. The children with intellectual disabilities were predominately children with Downs syndrome. The researchers used five assessments and data collection methods to assess the children’s pretend play skills and developmental growth. The five assessments used were the Snijder-Oomen Non-Verbal Intelligence Test, the Language Evaluation, the Test of Pretend Play (ToPP), and both the Coding Grid for Pretend Play in Dyads of Children and for Self-Regulation.

Symbolic pretend play relates to the cognitive process of problem solving, whereas self-regulation relates to symbolic play. The researchers conducted a baseline assessment of the children’s pretend play skills using the Snijder-Oomen Non-Verbal Intelligence test, the Language Evaluation and the ToPP tests. Once baseline was collected, the researchers conducted two 15-minute play sessions over a two day period. During the play sessions, the examiners paired the students with another student with the same diagnosis in the same room to assess their play. To better assess the children and for reliability, each pretend play session was