Early Childhood Research Lab
Pretend Play Intervention for Preschool Classrooms
About
Most teachers aspire to have classrooms where their students are calm, focused, following directions, and working together in a cooperative manner. Yet we know this is not always the case! Preschool children often act impulsively because the part of their brain that is responsible for executive functions is not fully developed. Executive functions are an important set of mental skills that help us to remember, pay attention, and control our behavior (Miyake et al., 2000).
By promoting executive function skills early on in development, we see that children are better able to learn traditional content such as colors, days of the week, and the alphabet. We also see numerous positive outcomes well into adulthood including higher incomes and less use of welfare services (Schweinhart et al., 2005). So how can we best promote these skills? In this study, we examined if pretend play can facilitate executive function development through a 5 week pretend-play intervention.
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Information About Participating
Enrollment is closed for this project.
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Funding Sources:
This research is funded by the Imagination Institute via The John Templeton Foundation (2015-2017; Grant RFP 15-08) as well as the University of Alabama Research Grants Committee.
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Collaborators:
Ansley Gilpin
University of Alabama
Melissa Brown
Texas Woman's University
Jillian Pierucci
St. Mary's University