Current Projects
Preschool Teachers Perceptions of Creative Students
This project focuses on how preschool teachers perceive creative students in classroom settings.
Creativity Measures
This project focuses on new and developmentally appropriate ways to measure creativity in young children and looking at the cognitive skills that may be related to creativity in this age-group.
How does Imaginative Play predict Emotion Regulation and Internalizing Symptoms in Preschool Children?
This project focuses on examining how imaginative play can benefit preschool children's socioemotional skills.
Completed Projects
Executive Functions and Imaginative Play
This project explored whether imaginative play serves as a positive context for developing executive functions (EF) and prosocial behaviors necessary for academic success.
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We found that imaginative play predicted both hot and cool EF, as well as prosocial behavior, after controlling for age and vocabulary. Furthermore, the relationship between imaginative play and prosocial behavior was fully explained by hot EF.
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Imaginative Children in the Classroom
This project examined the cognitive and social skills of children who typically engage in imaginative play in comparison to their peers in classroom contexts across multiple informants: child, teacher, and classroom observers.
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We found that across multiple informants, children high in imaginative play exhibited higher cognitive and social skills in the classroom.
Story-Stem Creativity in Preschoolers
The current study aimed to examine how imagination and self-regulation predict preschoolers' creativity using a story-stem creativity task.
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We found that the interaction between imagination and self-regulation predicted creativity using a story-stem task. Specifically, children with high imagination and high self-regulation had the highest creativity scores.
The Creativity in Play Scale
This project developed the Creativity in Play Scale to evaluate preschool creativity observationally using children's natural play behaviors. We also examined processes related to creativity in early childhood related to imagination and self-regulation.
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We found that assessing creativity through play is a feasible and that children with higher levels of imagination had higher observed creativity in play.
Classroom Observations and Teacher Perceptions of Pretend Play
This project evaluated how different forms of pretend play are rated and endorsed by classroom observers and preschool teachers. In Study 1, free play behaviors were rated for specific qualities and in Study 2, preschool teachers across the nation provided their perceptions of pretend play themes.
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We found that fantastical play involved more emotions, engagement, and was more fun than realistic play. Additionally, we found that teachers showed a preference for sociodramatic play compared to fantastical play, demonstrating a discrepancy between observers and endorsement of these play types by teachers.
Creativity across Domains in Preschoolers
The current study aimed to examine the role of imagination and self-regulation in preschoolers' creativity across multiple domains and informants: drawing, narrative, play, divergent thinking, and a teacher-rated creativity measure
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We found that the interaction between imagination and self-regulation predicted creativity using teacher-rated creativity. Only imagination predicted narrative and play creativity and only self-regulation predicted drawing creativity. Neither skill predicted divergent thinking.