Promoting narrative competence through adult–child joint pretense: Lessons from the Scandinavian educational practice of playworld

This paper examines the effects of the playworld educational practice on the development of narrative competence in 5- to 7-year-old children. The playworld educational practice is derived from play pedagogy and the theory of narrative learning, both developed and implemented in Scandinavia. The pla...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCognitive development Vol. 20; no. 4; pp. 576 - 590
Main Authors Baumer, Sonja, Ferholt, Beth, Lecusay, Robert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Inc 01.10.2005
Elsevier
Subjects
Childrens Literature
Discussion (Teaching Technique)
Educational Practices
Foreign Countries
Language Acquisition
Narrative competence
Playworld
Preschool Children
Pretense
Scandinavia
Teaching Methods
Visual Arts
Play
Art
Narrative competence
Pretense
Playworld
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Summary:This paper examines the effects of the playworld educational practice on the development of narrative competence in 5- to 7-year-old children. The playworld educational practice is derived from play pedagogy and the theory of narrative learning, both developed and implemented in Scandinavia. The playworld practice consists of joint adult–child pretense based in a work of children's literature, discussion, free play, and visual art production. When compared to children under a control intervention (conventional school practices without pretend play), children who participated in the playworld practice show significant improvements in narrative length, coherence, and comprehension, although not in linguistic complexity. These findings provide further evidence concerning the role of pretense in the narrative development of young children.
ISSN:0885-2014
1879-226X
1879-226X
DOI:10.1016/j.cogdev.2005.08.003