An Exploratory Study Examining the Association Between School-Aged Children's Pretend Play Skills and Their Executive...

Pretend play and executive functioning underpin developmental skills required for everyday functioning. Pediatric occupational therapists' practice often supports children in the development of these skills. Limited attention has been given to examine the association between these two concepts in school-aged children. This study investigated the association between executive functioning and pretend play skills in neurotypically developing children aged 9-12 years.

Twenty-nine (12 male, 17 female) participants aged 9-12 years old completed the Animated Movie Test (AMT), Affect in Play Scale-Brief Rating version (APS-BR), and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second edition (BRIEF2). Spearman's rho correlations were used to examine the association between the factors.

The BRIEF2 Emotional Regulation Index (ERI) was significantly correlated with the APS-BR Frequency of Affect (r_s = .40., p = .033) while the BRIEF2 Cognitive Regulation Index (CRI) and Global Executive Composite (GEC) were both significantly associated with the APS-BR Tone of affect subscale (r_s = -0.47, p = .011; r_s = -0.39, p = .035). The AMT Generation of problems subscale was significantly correlated with the BRIEF2 CRI (r_s = -0.49, p = .007) and GEC (r_s = -0.40., p = .030).

The findings provide evidence to suggest that aspects of executive functioning and pretend play are correlated for primary school aged children aged 9 to 12.