Imitation and Imagination in
the Play at an Early Age
Hilkka Munter & Kaisa Jakkula
Kajaani University Consortium
University of Oulu
Lev Vygotsky, ”The psychology of art”
”By dragging a child into a topsy-turvy
world, we help his intellect work, because
the child becomes interested in creating
such a topsy-turvy world for himself in
order to become more effectively the
master of the laws governing the real
world.”
The research site: Little-Silmu
Creative playgroup for young children and their
parents
– 12 children (age 6-33 months)
– 3 students' groups (á 12 students)
– 2 teachers
Meetings weekly, 2.5 hours
–
–
–
–
moving activities
little stories and presentations (little dramas, books)
face-to-face plays, rituals, rhymes
free play in different environments with different
materials
– music and artistic activities
Purpose of Little-Silmu activity
• Pedagogical purpose: (1) Students in early
education get their first knowledge about children
under three years of age: what is development,
what it is to be a very young child, how do I am
present to the child, how do I interact with him/her,
how do I interact with parents, how do I develop
my interaction. (2) Students get their first
experiences from the pedagogical activity with
small children and with their parents; their learn,
what is narrative and what is play in early
pedagogics. (3) Students learn to think how to
bring together theory and practice.
• Research purpose: To find out the way from
imitative play to pretend role-play and joint
imagination aiming to elaborate early creative play
pedagogy.
Main Research Questions
What must happen – and happens
– before "the real play"?
What is the ZPD of play in the first
three years of life?
ZPD - the meeting of minds
Galina Zuckerman (2007):
ZPD – the meeting (or failure to meet) of two
different minds, each of which reflects the entire
fullness of existence in its own way. – The chief
condition of the meeting and dialogue of these
minds is the orientation of the adult toward what
IS PRESENT in the child at the moment of the
meeting.
Experiences of co-participation. All participants
are developing / learning.
Contextual frame of imitation and imagination
Research Questions
• How does an adult manage to attain the
sense of child's activity?
• How do children create joint sense in their
activity?
• How these two are intertwined?
Case: Leevi
• Participarting Little-Silmu from the age of 15
months to 33 months with his mother or grandad,
from autumn 2005 to the spring 2007
• Video material: mainly students (sometimes
teachers) are videotaping the activity of children
and of themselves with children with two little
cameras, in different activities and situations
• Leevi: together about 300 episodes, lasting from
10 seconds to 15 minutes
Episode 1 (28092005/1)
Leevi 15 months
Common meaning, joint sense between adult
and child in imaginative activity (pretense)
– Child: observes an other child playing “cooking”,
comes to the same place, imitates the activity, but
makes own choices, creates his own way to act,
finishes the activity when ready
– Adult: observes the child, gives hints with a coregulated manner, notices sensitively the intentions of
the child
– Creative interaction between the child and the adult;
mutual understanding
Episode 2 (02022006/1-2), (02022006/4-1)
Leevi 19 months, peers 17 and 31 months
Common meaning,joint sense between children
and adults in non-fictive activity
– Children, full of initiatives, imitate each others in the
movement environment; repetitions of moving
activities; bodily interaction and enjoyment, harmony
– Mothers make children’s relations possible, sensitize
them to each other telling their names, support them
in taking turns; they create prerequisites for “we-ness”
– No imaginative acts; joy in mooving; later in this same
environment moving and pretense will combine
– Moving makes imitation, common experiences and
sharing possible
Episode 3 (11102006/1-2)
Leevi 28 months
Common meaning, diverse sense in
common activity between child and mother
in imaginative activity
– mother’s idea and aim is to teach the rules of
the game
– the child begins to follow, but soon changes
the idea to the imaginative traffic play
– mother holds her aim, the child his idea; the
activity will stop
Episode 4 (08112006/4-2)
Leevi 29 months
Common meaning, diverse sense in common activity
between child and adult in imaginative activity
– Child: playing with wooden railway and trains, but imagining
them as cars, taking a role as a driver, who chauffeurs an oil
truck and goes to the home; tells aloud - to the adult and to
himself - what is happening
– Adult: has an idea of railway, misunderstands in critical
moments, what the child tells, repeats child’s words wrongly, but
does not notice it; tries to be attentive and sharing
– Child: leaves the play, goes to search something else
– The adult does not catch child’s sense, because he is acting in
realistic sphere, the child in imaginative sphere
Episode 5 (28022007/2-2)
Leevi 32 months, peer 27 months
Common meaning, joint sense between child-mother
and child-child, but not mutual (equal) co-operation
between children in imaginative activity
– Imaginary situation, mother supports by verbalizing it (shopping,
bying), and helping children’s social interaction
– The other child tries intensively to participate bringing objects
(buys); Leevi will be pleased, but do not begin reciprocal
interaction
– Leevi is verbally very well developed and uses spoken language
as imaginary tool; the other child is verbally late and uses mainly
communicative gestures and acts; they have difficulties in
imaginary play situations, but common activities, for instance, in
movement environment
Episode 6 (28022007/3-1)
Leevi 32 months
Common meaning, joint sense between child and adult
in imaginative activity
– Child is telling to an adult an imaginary story using figures made
by himself from plasticine
– In this story the child combines his favourite TV-hero Goofy, also
Mickey Mouse and Minnie with his experiences from airport and
from movement environment in Silmu
– Adult follows the child’s idea, accepts, makes only a few verbal
hints and questions
– The child is excited and amused
Tentative Conclusions
• The younger the child, the more important is the
adult support.
• Peers developmental importance begins earlier
than we have used to think.
• Initiative of the child is basis to that their
experiences are meaningful to them and
therefore meaningful for development