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Category: Project

Description: This study addresses important questions about links between pretend play with peers and social competence in young children. Careful behavioural observation of play interactions between young children, and the development of both self- and peer-report measures of play undertaken in this body of work aim to make an important contribution to our understanding and measurement of play in childhood. Links between these multi-informant measures of children’s play, and socio-cognitive skills thought to underpin sophisticated play (e.g., emotion understanding, theory-of-mind understanding) are also examined, in addition to their independent and combined influence on children’s social competence.