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The Developmental Field Of Psychology

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The developmental field of psychology includes the study of the cognitive development of children. Play is an area of topic in developmental psychology that has attracted great interest amongst researchers and clinicians. It is a very common context where individuals engage in most of their time during childhood. The act of play involves more effects of development than just for recreational purposes. Piaget (1962) and Vygotsky (1966, 1978) both have found and recognised the act of play to be important for an individual’s normal development. Play is a situation or social framework that allows learning for young individuals. Pretend play is a subcategory of play that is defined by the nonliteral use of actions, objects and persons (Haight & Miller, 1993). Through the means of pretend play, children can produce expressions via communication with one another regarding their subjective understandings of the social world. Such learning from these types of social interactions includes the theory of mind development. Theory of mind (ToM) is also referred to the individual’s ability to understand mental states such as belief, intents and desire. This entails one’s understanding of others as well as their selves. *ToM* Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that includes characteristics of difficulties in two recognised areas of functioning. These impairments comprise of difficulties in social imagination (repetitive patterns of behaviour), and social interaction and

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