EFFECTS OF CONSTRUCTIVE AND DRAMATIC PLAY ON PERSPECTIVE TAKING IN VERY YOUNG-CHILDREN

Studied the effects of 2 types of play experiences-constructive and dramatic-on preschool children's perspective-taking (PT) performance. Pretests and posttests for 3 types of PT (perceptual, cognitive, and affective) were administered to 51 preschoolers, (mean age 4 yrs 10 mo) in 3 groups. Group 1 received 10 constructive play sessions, Group 2 received 10 dramatic play sessions, and Group 3 received no play treatment. Both play treatments produced substantial and roughly equivalent improvements in PT. These effects were general across the 3 types of PT, and they were not constrained by the Ss' pretraining performance on the PT tests. In view of recent evidence that some PT measures may not be reliable, a follow-up reliability study was conducted with 48 preschool children, mean age 4 yrs 8 mo. The test-retest reliabilities of the instruments used in the main experiment were high (i.e., perceptual task .72, cognitive tasks .64 and .49, and affective tasks .53 and .68). (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1979 American Psychological Association.