“Let’s pretend to be…” is commonly heard from young children as they play and interact at school, daycare, or at home. Many adults encourage imagination and creativity but others are afraid that ...

From developing social skills to fostering creativity, pretend play in young children is likened to being a "metaphoric multivitamin" in an editorial published in the journal Neuroscience and ...

Children who demonstrate pretend play ability as toddlers have significantly fewer emotional and behavioral difficulties at primary school, according to a new interdisciplinary University of Sydney ...

When a child turns a cardboard box into a spaceship, or a stick into a magic wand, it may look like simple fun. But beneath the giggles and dramatic voices, something far more powerful may be ...

Pretend play is a significant and often magical part of childhood. Children have huge imaginations and use these to turn rocks into spaceships, tables into forts or pens into fairies. They might ...