Sandra Russ -Pretend Play and Development of Creativity and Imagination

Pretend play has an important role in child development. Many studies have found that pretend play is associated with creativity in children. In my studies, we have found that imagination and affect expression in pretend play samples are related to divergent thinking, creativity in stories, and teacher ratings of creativity, independent of verbal intelligence. We’ve also found that pretend play ability is associated with positive mood and coping ability. I will briefly review the Affect in Play Scale (Russ, 1993; 2014), a play administration and coding system that measures aspects of play and discuss implications for using pretend play in school and home settings.