Pretend Play in Childhood

"The purpose of this book is to review all aspects of pretend play and creativity, from the point of view of both theory and research, and to illustrate how play lays the foundation for adult creativity. What is the role of pretend play in the development of creativity? What are the processes in pretend play? How do they relate to creative processes? How do the processes used in play reemerge in adult creativity? How do these processes show themselves in the creative work of the adult? For example, how is affect expression in pretend play similar to affect expression in the narrative of a story or poem? How is using blocks to represent different objects similar to generating hypotheses for scientific experiments? Is there evidence that play facilitates creativity? The first chapter in this volume, "Pretend Play and Creativity: An Overview," is an introductory one that defines pretend play and creativity and gives a general overview of processes involved in creativity and play.