Worldplay Relevance to Mature Creativity

First, worldplay nurtures the capacity for continued pretend play, especially thrthrough middle and late childhood, well after the intense exploration of make-believe/e in early childhood typically fades.

Second, worldplay exercises a range of cognitive capacities involved in projecting alternate realities, including imaginative thinking skills such as imaging, empathihizing, recognizing and forming patterns, dimensional thinking, and modeling. As wtwelbll, it may develop and sustain attitudes associated with creative process and activitnty: persistence, independence, openness to possibility.

Third, the projection of an imagined reality involves s self-lf-initiaiated problem n raisinens and problem solving—and at two levels of constraint. First, the transposition of real world elements into make-believe raises questions: Whertre is my imagginarnary^ countn What do imaginary beings do ththere? Secon»nd, t, the answers suppcpose e chimeric,, yet jt pla sible solutions. These, in turn, require a balanced blend of imaginnativive and analytic z skills. Put another way, worldplay exercises the capacity for consjnsistent e elabboraorati(ation;ion and synthesis within a modeled system.n. Regardless of jf ththat it systetem'sfantasttasticahl or 3r realisfic context, it provides a replicable strategy for leammingig ancnd disco3covover)ry.

Fourth, the active modeling of an imaginary world involves the construction of personal knowledge. As an intuitively charged form of comprehension, personal knowledge deals with make-believe "facts." It also deals with consensual understandings vhich we all share. The foundations of play-generated knowledge lie in the narrative elaborations of story and story frame. Ongoing and cumulative histories of chimeric elaborations of story and story frame. Ongoing and cumulative histories of chimeric beings, places, and systems reinforce the givenness of the make-believe realm. They also reflect its heuristic insights into humankind and nature.

Fifth, that givenness, i that "self-sufficient reality" as C. S. Lewis put it, often in¬ volves instantiation in the form of stories, drawings, maps, and other artifacts. These external structures support fiirther reflection and refinement of the imagined world as a thing in itself Such documentation, and the synthetic efforts that may attend it, provide early experience in the invention of culture.

Sixth, the invention of culture, albeit in play, involves a developing sense of self as an independent creator. The creating self, with attendant strategies for make-believe projection, may transfer to a variety of mature endeavors—and at modest as well as eminent levels of achievement. Indeed, because worldplay at any age ties the effer¬ vescence of play to the exigencies of problem solving, it may nurture both the ability and the audacity to imagine effective solutions to challenges in all walks of life.

Worldplay in childhood does not, of course, guarantee later creative achievement. At the very least, however, it is a heads-up. Just as composers can only come from the ranks of musicians, mature creators can only come from the ranks of those with prior experience creating. The playful, imaginative, and problem-solving aspects of world invention make it just such an experience, a "leaming laboratory" calling on behaviors and practices that may serve as predictors for mature productivity.