Symbolic Play and Analogy: a Way to Foster Children's Creativity

The author discusses the relationship between symbolic play, abstract thinking, and divergent and associative thinking based on analogies, and finally connects symbolic play with the creative process. Play and the creative act are seen as similar by definition, since they are characterized as divergent, regulative, expressive and autotelic processes. Symbolic play is not only a product of the animistic and concrete logical way of thinking in childhood but also represents a mode of abstract thinking at the fictional symbolic level, which provides different options important for creativity development. Symbolic play is based on analogies with reality, and in this way reality is transformed in the imagination to be comprehended by the child. This transformation, which takes place in the nest of analogy at the symbolic level, is a key for creative production. Analogies in symbolic play are created through the divergent associative thinking process, also basic for any creative activity. The author has already used play as a tool to enhance creative behavior among young students in primary schools, and currently one project is being implemented in Serbia by the Institute for Educational Research with the intention of promoting initiative, cooperation and creativity by using play among other learning methods. In order to analyze the function of symbolic play in creativity development among children of various ages we will try to answer the following three questions: (1) Why is symbolic play an abstract phenomenon? (2) Why is symbolic play based on the analogy mechanism characteristic of associative divergent thinking possesses? (3) Why is the analogy process a framework where creativity may appear more often? In the seventh and eighth decade of the 20 century a number of researchers analyzed the multilateral relationship between play and creativity (Bruner, Jolly & Sylva (eds.) 1976, Smith, 1984, Dansky & Silverman, 1973, Eljkonjin, 1978, Piaget, 1972 etc.) continuing the ideas developed at the beginning of the century and providing inspiration for us today. Coming from that background we will try to answer the previous questions. Play as Abstract Thinking We think that symbolic or pretense play in childhood is a concrete as well as an abstract thinking phenomenon. It is a concrete phenomenon because symbolic play starts from perceptual data, which are collected through explorative, research and environmentally oriented play activity, focused on discovering the visible external world. Symbolic play also appears to be concrete for viewers since the play action is visible. However, symbolic play is also an abstract phenomenon. This means that children in play function at the higher level of thinking in order to understand/assimilate the perceptions collected in the environment. For that purpose children use imagination to spontaneously transform perceptions into new mental constructions, reflecting personal meanings in congruence with previous experience. Although the transformation process takes place through the concrete play action, it is distant from the concrete outside reality and belongs to the abstract phenomenon due to its symbolic character. We want to emphasize that symbolic play is not only a childish action, but also an activity which is connected with abstract thinking processes. By abstract thinking we do not consider only thinking based on logical rules and concepts in the narrow sense, which young children are not able to achieve. Abstract thinking also refers to the cognitive process which helps to express reality at any symbolic level, including those levels of which children are capable. We can, for example, say that art is also a symbolic and abstract phenomenon, although it is not a product of conceptual logical thinking. We hypothesize that by facilitating symbolic play among children we may stimulate their abstract thinking development. This correlates with the idea of Vygotsky who thinks that fictional plan is necessary for the development of abstract thinking in science, for example (Vigotski, 1996), and symbolic play definitely operates at fictional level. Abstract thinking is also important for creativity development because both phenomena are based on multi-perspective approaches. Creativity and (Early) Cognitive Development: Papers from the 2013 AAAI Spring Symposium