The Power of Pretend Play

Children’s pretend play isn’t just fun, it’s foundational for language, social understanding, emotional regulation, and cognitive growth. While we’ve explored play as emotional language and play as attachment before, pretend play deserves its own focus because of what research tells us about its unique developmental contributions.

What Is Pretend Play?

Pretend play is a form of imaginative play where children act “as if,” using objects, roles, and stories to represent real-life experiences. Through this process, children are not just playing, they are exploring meaning, expressing ideas, practicing social roles, and making sense of the world around them.

This form of play typically emerges in the toddler years and becomes more complex by preschool, involving:

• role-taking (e.g., being a parent, doctor, teacher)

• object substitution (e.g., using a block as a phone)

• complex narratives and multi-step sequences (e.g., pretending to go shopping, cooking a meal, and then feeding a baby)

Pretend play is not random fantasy, it is a structured expression of meaning that supports emerging cognitive, linguistic, and social skills.

Importantly, pretend play develops gradually over time.

For toddlers, it may look simple, for example, feeding a doll, putting a teddy to bed, or pretending to drink from an empty cup. These early play moments are already meaningful, as children begin to imitate and make sense of everyday experiences.

As children grow into the preschool years, their play becomes more elaborate and organised. A child might pretend to go shopping, choose food, cook a meal, and then feed a baby. These longer sequences show how children are beginning to link ideas, build stories, and create logical connections within their play.

While the play may look different at each stage, both simple and complex pretend play are equally important. Each stage reflects a child’s current level of development and provides the foundation for more advanced skills over time.

These changes reflect important developments in how children think, communicate, and understand the world around them.

Why Pretend Play Matters: Research Insights

Language and Narrative Skills

One of the most robust lines of research comes from Australian play expert Karen Stagnitti, who has investigated how pretend play relates to language development.

In one longitudinal study, researchers found that the quality of preschool pretend play predicted later language outcomes, including:

• semantic organisation skills

• narrative re-telling ability

Children who used symbolic and elaborated play at ages 4–5 had stronger language organisation and storytelling skills up to five years later, explaining a significant portion of variance in narrative language ability.

This suggests that pretend play helps children structure and sequence ideas, exactly the skills underlying conversational language and early literacy.

Social Competence and Peer Interaction

In another study using the Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment, Stagnitti and colleagues found that children with more proficient pretend play skills also:

• engaged more in peer play

• showed higher social competence

• had fewer signs of social disruption or disconnection

In other words, children who were comfortable using symbols, roles, and shared imagination also tended to be more socially competent and involved in classroom activities.

Pretend play naturally requires children to negotiate roles, cooperate with peers, negotiate meaning, and adjust narratives, all social skills that translate into stronger peer relationships and school engagement.

Play, Language, and Self-Expression Through Curriculum

In a play-based school curriculum study, children in play-focused programs improved not only their pretend play skills, but also their oral language and narrative skills, compared with their peers in traditional curricula.

This suggests that supporting play in early education can have lasting effects on communication and grammar development.

A Deeper Look at the Learn to Play Framework

Karen Stagnitti’s Learn to Play framework describes pretend play as a set of six developmental play skills. These include:

• Play scripts

  Children draw on familiar everyday experiences (like going to the doctor or cooking dinner) and recreate these situations in their play.

  
  

• Sequences of actions

  Instead of single actions, children begin to link steps together in a logical order (e.g., feeding a doll → putting it to bed → reading a story).

  
  

• Object substitution

  Children use one object to represent another (e.g., a block becomes a phone), showing growing symbolic thinking.

  
  

• Role play

  Children take on different roles (parent, baby, teacher) and begin to understand perspectives beyond their own.

  
  

• Social interaction in play

  Children include others in their play, negotiating roles, sharing ideas, and building shared storylines.

  
  

• Storytelling logic

  Play becomes more organised, with a beginning, middle, and end, helping children develop narrative and language skills.

This model sees play as a hierarchical skill set, where children build each skill in stages, similar to how they build language or motor abilities.

Focused play interventions like Learn to Play have been shown to help children (including those with developmental delays) increase play complexity, social competence, and language participation, highlighting the therapeutic as well as developmental value of pretend play.

How This Shows Up in Everyday Development

So what does this actually look like in everyday life?

As children engage in pretend play, you may begin to notice changes across different areas of their development:

Language and Symbolic Thinking

Children begin to use more words, build sentences, and tell simple stories as they describe what is happening in their play.

Social Skills and Empathy

Through role play, children start to understand different perspectives, take turns, and navigate shared play with others.

Cognitive Organisation

You may notice your child linking ideas together, planning what happens next, and creating more organised and connected play sequences.

Emotional Regulation

Children often explore big feelings through play (such as fear, excitement, or caregiving), helping them process emotions in a safe and manageable way.

Importantly, pretend play isn’t just about how often children play, the quality of play matters. More detailed and connected play experiences tend to support deeper learning and development over time.

How to Support Pretend Play (At Any Stage)

As pretend play develops over time, children will show different levels of interest and ability depending on their age, personality, and experiences.

For some children, pretend play emerges naturally. For others, it may take more time, support, and opportunities to develop.

You might notice that your child:

• prefers repetitive or functional play (such as lining up toys or focusing on parts of objects)

• has difficulty using objects symbolically

• finds it challenging to create or follow simple play stories

• shows limited or no pretend play skills

This does not necessarily mean something is wrong, it may simply mean your child needs more support, opportunities, and modelling to develop these skills.

Research, including the work of Karen Stagnitti, shows that pretend play skills can be supported and developed over time through intentional and playful interactions.

Here are some simple ways to support your child:

Start simple and familiar

Use everyday experiences your child already knows:

• feeding a baby

• cooking

• going to sleep

• visiting the doctor

• pretending to drive cars or trucks

Model pretend play

Show your child how to play without pressure:

• “The teddy is hungry, let’s feed him.”

• “Oh no, the baby is crying.”

• “The car needs petrol.”

Keep it repetitive at first

Repetition helps children feel confident and understand the play sequence before expanding it.

Follow your child’s lead

Join their play without taking over. Let their ideas guide the direction of the story.

Play together

Shared play supports language, social interaction, and confidence in building play ideas.

Over time, with support and practice, children can begin to expand their play, moving from simple actions to more complex stories. These early experiences form the foundation for imagination, communication, and social understanding.

If you have ongoing concerns about your child’s play development, it can be helpful to speak with a professional who can guide and support you.

The Takeaway for Parents

Pretend play is much more than make-believe, it is a developmental engine that supports language, social competence, cognitive organisation, and emotional regulation. Encouraging this form of play can be one of the most meaningful ways to help children grow holistically.

Pretend play may look simple from the outside, but it carries deep developmental meaning. Each story your child creates, each role they take on, and each imaginary world they build is helping them make sense of their real one.

Through play, children are not just imagining, they are practicing life. They are developing language, exploring relationships, solving problems, and learning to understand their own feelings in ways that feel safe and meaningful.

When we slow down and become curious about their play, we begin to see more than toys and stories, we see thinking, feeling, learning, and growing.

By protecting and valuing this kind of play, we are not only supporting children in the moment, we are helping build the foundations for how they will communicate, connect, and navigate the world around them.

Learn More About Pretend Play

The work of Karen Stagnitti provides valuable insights into how pretend play supports children’s development, particularly through her Learn to Play framework.

For parents and professionals interested in exploring further:

• Stagnitti, K. (2011). Learn to Play: A practical program to develop a child’s imaginative play skills

• Podcasts and talks featuring Karen Stagnitti on pretend play and child development

• Resources on play-based learning and development

How Can I Help?

References

Stagnitti, K. (2011). Learn to play: A practical program to develop a child’s imaginative play skills. Co-ordinates Publications.

Stagnitti, K., & Lewis, F. (2015). Quality of pre-school children’s pretend play and subsequent development of semantic organisation and narrative re-telling skills. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17(2), 148–158. https://doi.org/10.3109/17549507.2014.941934

Stagnitti, K., Unsworth, C., & Rodger, S. (2008). Pretend play, social competence and involvement in children aged 5–7 years. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 55(4), 243–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1630.2007.00707.x

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

Smilansky, S. (1968). The effects of sociodramatic play on disadvantaged preschool children. Wiley.

Garvey, C. (1990). Play. Harvard University Press.

Elkind, D. (2007). The power of play: Learning what comes naturally. Da Capo Press.