Michelle Downes

A lot of research in this area has focused on older children.

So it's, I suppose, quite a fun visit for the families.

They're coming in, they're playing games, they're interacting with their children.

And we're looking at how pretend play is emerging from, you know, 20 months right up to age three.

And also how these self-regulatory and executive functioning skills are emerging in parallel.

Yeah, it can be fun.

Yeah, it can get quite busy now.

There's usually one or two families in at a time.

And, you know, we often have other studies running in parallel.

So we have babies coming in at the moment for a weaning study, looking at motor development.

We've got older children coming in, looking at spatial development.

mathematics development.

So, you know, it can get quite busy, but it's a lot of fun.

Yeah, absolutely.

Like, I think there's a lot of pressure on parents these days to

you know, bring a lot of structured scenarios in like structured, you know, going to maybe football, going to swimming and so on.

But having that kind of open, unstructured time for a child to use their imagination through Play-Doh, through art,

through toys, even if it's just a big box.

And if you want to get involved as a parent, if you're feeling tired, you know, if you can sit on the floor beside them and say, let's, you know, let's all be animals.

Let's pretend we're at the zoo.