TALKING ABOUT PRETENDING: YOUNG CHILDRENS EXPLICIT UNDERSTANDING OF REPRESENTATION

In these studies we investigated young childrenʹs ability to talk about the representational aspects of pretense. In Study I, many 5-year-olds, but very few 4-year-olds, were able to correctly explain why certain actions should not be called pretending. In Study 2, young children discriminated between pictures of thinking and pretending based on a depiction of an action. In Study 3, preschoolers were less able than kindergartners to talk about the mental states involved in pretending. Given these findings, and previous research, adult conceptualizations of pretense that involve an appreciation of the unreal dimension may be inaccurate descriptions of the pretend behaviors that toddlers and preschoolers exhibit. These results are important given growing evidence of the critical role of a theory of mind in competent social skills.