| Abstract | This paper examines pretend play, its characteristics and its importance. The defining is done by presenting criteria, suggested by Lorraine McCune-Nicolich, which need to be fulfilled in order to observe the play as a pretend play (e.g. pretending to be someone else, treating inanimate objects as animate, performing actions without necessary materials or by substituting them with others, etc). In the head section, the methods and strategies that pretend play consists of, according to Doris Bergen, are presented. According to Bergen, the methods are role taking (e.g. parent-child), script knowledge, and improvisation; while strategies include joint planning, negotiation, problem solving, and goal seeking. Those components are all again defined, as well as explained and exemplified with the help of several videos from YouTube web page and American movies portraying pretend play among (pre-)school children. The accent is on gender-specific characteristics, and on the observing of boys and girls discourse in specific examples (e.g. how boys and girls give direct orders, or achieve goals with words). Jenny Cook-Gumperz and Amy Kyratzis paper Child Discourse is used as a basis for this part of the research. Finally, it is discussed whether suggested presumptions related to gender division are proven, or not. |
