Pretend Play vs. Real Activities: What the Research Found

A recent study into the psychology of real and imagined play in children offers new support to one of the hallmarks of the Montessori method. The research, conducted by Prof. Angeline Lillard, and published in the journal Developmental Science, aims to determine whether children prefer imaginary play, or real activities for their “play” time.

Real vs. Imaginary Play

For this research, “imaginary” or “pretend” play refers to any activity during which a child uses their imagination to construct or enhance the activity. This would include “riding” a hobby-horse as if it were a real horse, or using plastic or wooden food pieces to “cook dinner” in a play kitchen. There are, of course, varying levels of imagination involved in these different types of tasks. “Real activities” are those in which the child is using the tools and resources that an adult would use to accomplish the same ends. For instance, rather than “pretending” to cut plastic or wooden vegetables, the child would use a real knife to slice a real vegetable.

Montessori Philosophy

Montessori education has long held and supported the belief that children desire to engage in real-world activities, and that by allowing them to do so, we are scaffolding accelerated development around those topics. This new research supports the claim that children seek out opportunities to engage in real world tasks.

Research Methods

The researchers asked 100 preschoolers (ages three through six) their preferences on a number of tasks–comparing their responses to “real” and “pretend” versions of each task. Children were presented with real and pretend versions of nine different tasks, and asked to choose which version they would prefer, and explain why they made their choice.

Children Prefer Real Activities

The very youngest of the group (three years old) were evenly split between preferring the real activities to the pretend activities. By age four, children preferred the real activities by a wide margin. Some activities were seen as more accessible, and more children preferred the real versions, whereas some activities (for example, horseback riding) were perceived as more restrictive, with a larger percentage of children choosing the pretend version. Even so, there were no activities for which 100% of respondents preferred the pretend version.

Children’s Explanations

In addition to stating preferences for each activity, children also gave their justifications for their preferences. For some tasks, children believed that they didn’t have the necessary skills to accomplish the real version of the task, and feared the negative outcomes that could be caused by a failure to complete the task. In some cases, children chose the pretend task out of fear or uncertainty about the real world version of the task. For example, one child was frightened to go fishing for fear of hooking a shark or other dangerous creature.

On the other hand, for many, the fact that performing real-world activities led to real-world results was stimulating and rewarding. Others pointed out that by engaging in real-world activities as play, they would be better prepared to accomplish the activities in higher-stakes environments in the future.

Intrinsic Motivation and Montessori Implications

These findings support the philosophy of Montessori methodology, which encourages students to engage in real world activities, with real materials. In many preschool settings, children are encouraged (or forced, as the case may be) to utilize their imaginations, and play props, for the purpose of learning new tasks. In Montessori classrooms, students are encouraged to interact with real world materials; learn how the materials, their bodies, and the environment interact; and develop thoughtful processes to remain safe and happy while engaging in the tasks.

This new research provides valuable insight into the motivation behind preschool learning. By providing preschoolers with the types of tasks that they want, we can increase their intrinsic motivation and love of learning, while also helping them to learn what they need for future academic success.

Research Article:

Taggart J, Heise M, Lillard A. The real thing: preschoolers prefer actual activities to pretend ones. Dev Sci. 2017:e12582. doi:10.1111/desc.12582.

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