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Grounded in Lev Vygotsky’s proposal that pretend play supports symbolic thought and self-regulation, it reviews evidence on links to inhibitory control and highlights unresolved findings that require further study. Discusses possible mechanisms such as private speech and the role of adult facilitation without controlling children’s play. Considers moderation by child characteristics and play content, and calls for clearer causal research in early childhood.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-role-of-make-believe-play-in-the-development-of-executive-function-status-of-research-and-future-directions/591459/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-role-of-make-believe-play-in-the-development-of-executive-function-status-of-research-and-future-directions/591459.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"supergirl","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is executive function (EF) in this text?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"EF is an umbrella term for self-regulatory skills, including attention control, impulse suppression, working-memory integration, planning, organizing, monitoring, and flexible redirection of thought and behavior.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does Vygotsky link make-believe play to children’s self-regulation?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Vygotsky argues symbolic play strengthens internal regulation through mental symbols and supports responsiveness to external social pressures through rule-based pretend scenarios.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why do the authors call for more research on pretend play and EF?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"They note that existing research remains inconclusive, with correlational and training findings inconsistent, and that stronger evidence for a causal link between pretense and EF development in early childhood is still lacking.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591459,1792080610,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962088121634,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","The Role of Make-Believe Play in the Development of Executive Function  \n3TATUS OF 2ESEARCH AND &UTURE $IRECTIONS  \ns  \nLaura E. Berk  \nAdena B. Meyers  \nThe authors discuss the association between make-believe play and the development of executive-function (EF) skills in young children. Some forty years ago, Lev  \nS. Vygotsky first proposed that make-believe fosters the development of symbolic thought and self-regulation. Since then, a small body of research has produced evidence of an association between pretend play and such EF skills as inhibitory control, but its results have been inconclusive and more studies are needed. Still, some research points to the potential mediating role of private speech in the association between pretense and EF, and other evidence suggests that adults can support children’s EF development by facilitating and encouraging (but not controlling) young children’s make-believe play. Yet other research indicates that the influence of make-believe on EF may be moderated by child characteristics and by the content and themes of play. The authors specifically call for more research on the potential causal link between pretense and EF development in early childhood. Keywords: executive function; inhibitory control; make-believe; pretend play; private speech; sociodramatic play  \nExecutive function (EF)—an umbrella term for self-regulatory skills—refers to the set of cognitive operations and strategies necessary for overseeing and conducting challenging, purposeful life tasks. EF encompasses controlling attention, suppressing impulses in favor of adaptive responses, and combining information in working memory, as well as planning, organizing, monitoring, and flexibly redirecting thought and behavior. A large body of research confirms that early childhood is a crucial time for laying the foundations of EF (Welsh 2001; Welsh, Friedman, and Spieker 2008). Between ages two and six, typically developing children make impressive strides in focusing attention, inhibiting inappropriate responses, planning sequences of actions, and thinking flexibly. Moreover, assessments of EF during the preschool years consistently predict academic achievement and social maturity in the years from kindergarten through  \n98  \nAmerican Journal of Play, volume 6, number 1, © The Strong  \nContact Laura E. Berk at [leberk@ilstu.edu](leberk@ilstu.edu)  \nhigh school (Blair and Diamond 2008; Blair and Razza 2007; Duncan et al. 2007; Pagani et al. 2010; Rhoades, Greenberg, and Domitrovich 2009; Romano et al. 2010). Consequently, clarifying the experiences that contribute to early gains in EF has become a high priority for developmental and educational researchers (Diamond 2012) .  \nIn 1933 in a brief twelve-page essay, eminent developmental psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky (1978) presented a provocative, innovative theory on the power of play to augment young children’s self-regulation. Vygotsky emphasized the importance of symbolic play—the make-believe that emerges in toddlerhood and that flourishes during the preschool years, evolving into sociodramatic scenarios with peers involving complex coordination of roles. He granted pretense the status of “a leading factor in development,” deeming it a zone of proximal development in which children display a level of maturity more advanced than in nonplay contexts. The child who sits still for only a few minutes during story time can attend for as long as five to ten minutes while playing school; the child who readily grabs playmates’ toys shares and waits his turn while collaboratively enacting a meal-preparation scene with peers. In Vygotsky’s words,“In play the child always behaves above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself”(102) . The capacities forged in play, Vygotsky proposed, gradually transfer to real-world endeavors, making play a major source of development.  \nThe power of symbolic play to foster young children’s self-regulation","cbCaifCVP25ZIrTu","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifCVP25ZIrTu","pdf",124785,13,"English","# Keywords\n## Executive function definition and early foundations\n## Vygotsky’s theory of symbolic play and self-regulation\n## Mechanisms: internal regulation and rule-based social responsiveness\n## Research status and future directions","[{\"question\":\"What is executive function (EF) in this text?\",\"answer\":\"EF is an umbrella term for self-regulatory skills, including attention control, impulse suppression, working-memory integration, planning, organizing, monitoring, and flexible redirection of thought and behavior.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Vygotsky link make-believe play to children’s self-regulation?\",\"answer\":\"Vygotsky argues symbolic play strengthens internal regulation through mental symbols and supports responsiveness to external social pressures through rule-based pretend scenarios.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do the authors call for more research on pretend play and EF?\",\"answer\":\"They note that existing research remains inconclusive, with correlational and training findings inconsistent, and that stronger evidence for a causal link between pretense and EF development in early childhood is still lacking.\"}]","The Role of Make-Believe Play in the Development of Executive Function - Status of Research and Future Directions | PDF",1792072480,33]