How young boys build imaginary worlds together

I remember, aged five or so, a friend and I were the cool police motorcyclists from the TV show CHiPs. Our props were limited to the usual paraphernalia of a suburban home and yet somehow both of us knew when the other person was on foot or on his Kawasaki motorbike, which routes through the house were motorways, where the baddies were located, and most important, we both understood the plot of our game.For a new study, a team of psychologists in Australia has taken an interest in the conversation that allows this kind of coordinated imaginary game-play between childhood friends. Frances Hoyte and her colleagues video recorded three boys aged five to six - Alan, Bradley, and Max - as they played with each other in pairs for half an hour. Alan and Bradley had previously identified each other as being "very best friends", as had Bradley and Max. Alan and Max were "just a little bit friends."Each pairing from this trio was asked to play together with various props available to help them on their way, including brightly coloured building blocks, wooden discs, bottle tops and pebbles. The toys were chosen deliberately to be open-ended, "so that the materials did not prescribe a specific agenda for play."Hoyte's team identified three conversational themes in the boys' playtime interactions. The first, found in the conversations in all three pairs, the researchers called "making together". "The goal of the first talk type," the researchers said, "was to co-construct a represent...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs