Modification of Imaginative Play in Preschool Children through the Intervention of an Adult Model

Abstract

An intervention technique designed to enhance the level of imaginative play in the preschool child through the direct intervention of an adult model was applied in two studies. In both studies pre- and post-test ratings of experimental and control groups' spontaneous play were made by observers blind to the nature of the experiment. The first study, carried out with middle-class children, showed that the experimental group increased significantly on ‘co-operation and interaction with peers' and ‘affect’ but not ‘imaginativeness’. When the experiment was repeated in Study 2 with lower-class children, ‘imaginative play’ and ‘concentration’ were found to increase significantly for experimental children. It was concluded that the initial level of spontaneous imaginative play is crucial in determining the effects of such intervention techniques.