International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences

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A Study of Metacommunication Signals in the Initiation of Pretend Play of 3-6 year-old Children

Received: 22 September 2019    Accepted: 28 October 2019    Published: 06 December 2019
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Abstract

Pretend play is the most typical play among children aged 3-6 years old, the initiation of which needs children’s matecommunication ability. In turn, the temecommunication ability of children can be enhanced and strengthened during the play. And thus the topic of how children initiate matecommunication signals in the pretend play is worthy to research. Using observation as research method, the researchers analyzed the metacommunication signals in the initiation of pretend play of 60 children aged 3-6. The results are as follows: (1) the metacommunication signals used by children aged 3-6 on pretend play show a tendency of transition from non-verbal signals to verbal signals with the increase of age. (2) Metacommunication signals used in regional activities show a feature of borrowing special materials and being limited by material exploring ability, and metacommunication signals used in life activities show a feature of using spontaneous physical actions. (3) The signals used by familiar peers are identifiable and changed frequently, and signals used by unfamiliar peers are repeatedly explained and are controlled. Some suggestions are provided. Reachers propose responding suggestions for teachers in the kindergarten: (1) Properly place regional material (2) Support children’s spontaneous communicative activities. (3) Promote the development of the psychological theory of children in junior class.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20190405.11
Published in International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 5, October 2019)
Page(s) 50-55
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Pretend Play, Metacommunication Signals, Children Aged 3-6

References
[1] G. Bateson. (2006). A Theory of play and fantasy. Cambridge: The mit press.
[2] Yan Liu. (2004). General theory of children's play. Beijing: Beijing normal university press, 133.
[3] Sheng HSI L (1994). Gender differences in initiation and maintenance of pretend play with Taiwanese children. Austin: The university of texas at Austin.
[4] C. Garvey. (1990). Play enlarged edition. Harvard University Press.
[5] Helen B. Schwartzman. (1978). Transformations: The Anthropology of Children’s Play. New York: Plenum Press. 1978.
[6] Holly Lynne N. Giffin. (1982). The Metacommunicative Process in Collective Make-believe Play. Ph D. Dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder. Abstract.
[7] L. Frost; S. C. Wortham; S. Reifel. translated by Ying Zhang, Xiaojuan Tang. (2011). Play and children’s development. Jiangsu educational press, 125-126.
[8] Brenda-Joyce. Boyd (1991). Metacommunication in Young Children’s Pretend Play: An Instrument Development Study. PhD. Dissertation, The University of Georgia.
[9] Sheng-hsi Lin. (1994). Gender Differences in initiation and Maintenance of Prete-nd Play With Taiwanese Children. PhD. Dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin. 1994.
[10] Sheng-Hsi Lin (1994). Gender Differences in initiation and Maintenance of Pretend Play With Taiwanese Children. Ph D. Dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 27, 58.
[11] Sheng-Hsi Lin. (1994). Gender Differences in initiation and Maintenance of Pretend Play With Taiwanese Children. Ph D. Dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 213; 26.
[12] Anna-Beth Doyle, Jennifer Connolly. (1987). Negotiation and Enactment in Social Pretend Play: Relations to Social Acce-ptance and Social Cognition [C]. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Social Science and Humanities Rearch Council of Canada. Abstract.
[13] Linhui Li. (2008). The metecommunication development research of the cooperative play of children aged from 3-6 year- old. Paper of master’s degree of East China Normal University.
[14] Yujiao Huang. (2013, Feb). The theory of metacommunication of play to the revelation children's social viewpoint selection. Journal of current preschool education.
[15] Xiuling Xu, Shan Liu. (2015, Jan). The influence of metacommuncative ability to the children play. Journal of Education/Development. 2015. 01.
[16] Ziyu Meng. (2016, Dec). Types, characteristics and influences of metacommunication in children’s play. Journal of Earlychildhood Education.
[17] W. A. Corsaro. (2016). translated by Lanyu Zhang. Sociology of childhood. Heilongjiang education press, 121-133.
[18] Shanze Li, Chuanying Li. (2007, Feb). The theory on symbolic value of the pretend play of children. Preschool Educational Research.
Author Information
  • Research Center for the Educational Development of Minorities, College of Education, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China

  • College of Educational Science, Hengyang Normal University, Hengyang, China

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  • APA Style

    Hongzhi Long, Mengqi Wei. (2019). A Study of Metacommunication Signals in the Initiation of Pretend Play of 3-6 year-old Children. International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 4(5), 50-55. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijpbs.20190405.11

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    ACS Style

    Hongzhi Long; Mengqi Wei. A Study of Metacommunication Signals in the Initiation of Pretend Play of 3-6 year-old Children. Int. J. Psychol. Brain Sci. 2019, 4(5), 50-55. doi: 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20190405.11

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    AMA Style

    Hongzhi Long, Mengqi Wei. A Study of Metacommunication Signals in the Initiation of Pretend Play of 3-6 year-old Children. Int J Psychol Brain Sci. 2019;4(5):50-55. doi: 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20190405.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijpbs.20190405.11,
      author = {Hongzhi Long and Mengqi Wei},
      title = {A Study of Metacommunication Signals in the Initiation of Pretend Play of 3-6 year-old Children},
      journal = {International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences},
      volume = {4},
      number = {5},
      pages = {50-55},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijpbs.20190405.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijpbs.20190405.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijpbs.20190405.11},
      abstract = {Pretend play is the most typical play among children aged 3-6 years old, the initiation of which needs children’s matecommunication ability. In turn, the temecommunication ability of children can be enhanced and strengthened during the play. And thus the topic of how children initiate matecommunication signals in the pretend play is worthy to research. Using observation as research method, the researchers analyzed the metacommunication signals in the initiation of pretend play of 60 children aged 3-6. The results are as follows: (1) the metacommunication signals used by children aged 3-6 on pretend play show a tendency of transition from non-verbal signals to verbal signals with the increase of age. (2) Metacommunication signals used in regional activities show a feature of borrowing special materials and being limited by material exploring ability, and metacommunication signals used in life activities show a feature of using spontaneous physical actions. (3) The signals used by familiar peers are identifiable and changed frequently, and signals used by unfamiliar peers are repeatedly explained and are controlled. Some suggestions are provided. Reachers propose responding suggestions for teachers in the kindergarten: (1) Properly place regional material (2) Support children’s spontaneous communicative activities. (3) Promote the development of the psychological theory of children in junior class.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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