Abstract

• The primary purpose of this study is to examine pretend play and divergent thinking of preschool children. The sample consists of 60 preschool children (26 males and 34 females) from Sagaing District and Pyin Oo Lwin District. The preschool children were randomly selected. Descriptive research design and survey method were used in this study. Affect in Play Scale – Preschool version was used to measure pretend play of preschool children. The Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure was used to measure divergent thinking of preschool children. The data were analyzed by calculating descriptive statistics, independent sample t test and Pearson-Product Moment Correlation. According to results, there were significant differences in dimensions of pretend play by age. Then, female preschoolers were higher than male in pretend play, imagination, elaboration and positive affect. Then, females express fewer themes of negative affect in their pretend play than males. There were no significant differences in fluency and novelty scores of divergent thinking by gender. There was a significant difference in divergent thinking fluency score by age. Finally, there was significant positive correlation between pretend play and divergent thinking.