ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between symbolic play and narrative in the process of development. There has been a great deal of developmental research on each of these subjects, and in fact both have attracted increasing interest in the past several decades-not just for their own sake, but also in terms of their connections to broader issues of socialization and development, including cognition, imagination, social competence, and education (e.g., Bamberg, 1997; Bruner, 1992; Fireman, McVay, & Flanagan, 2003; Nicolopoulou, 1993, 1997a; Roskos & Christie, 2000; Saracho & Spodek, 1998). For example, a growing body of research has argued convincingly that the mastery of narrative skills by children in their preschool years serves as one crucial foundation for emergent literacy and long-term school success (e.g., McCabe & Bliss, 2003; Tabors, Snow, & Dickinson, 2001). Other lines of research have linked children’s play to their learning and development in the domains of cognition,
language, morality, social understanding, and social competence (for one overview, see Saracho & Spodek, 1998). However, there have been relatively few attempts to address children’s play and narrative in an integrated way, and to examine the relationship between them concretely and systematically.
