The effect of dramatic play on children's generation of cohesive text?

Abstract

The intent of the study was twofold: to examine the extent to which children's cohesive oral text varied as a function of listener status and to determine the extent that children could be trained to generate decontextualized oral text. One hundred and eight children, in same age groups of four, ranging in age from 5 years 11 months to 8 years 1 months, were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: dramatic play, discussion, or drawing. An adult read each group children's books on three separate occasions. Children were then exposed to their respective treatments and subsequently asked to retell the story to a naive or informed listener. Results indicated that children, independent of age or condition, generated more exophora to an informed listener than to a naive listener and more endophora to a naive than to an informed listener. First‐and second‐grade children in the play condition generated more endophora than both of the other groups. The kindergarten discussion group generated more exophoric ellipsis than kindergarten players. It was suggested that the symbolic nature of play trained children to use explicit language.