The purpose of this study was to examine the aspects and meanings of the imaginative play of toddlers in a class of age 2 during free play. A research question was posed:
What are the aspects and meanings of the imaginative play of toddlers in a two-year-old class?
The subjects in this study were 16 toddlers and two homeroom teachers in a daycare center located in the city of B. Data were gathered by making participant observation during an approximately 10-week from December, 2014, to February, 2015, on weekdays between 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. when they played without any restrictions. Besides, the toddlers and the teachers were interviewed in an unstructured way whenever it was necessary. As for data analysis, circular analysis was continuously made to obtain an overview of the research theme after data were collected, and theme analysis was made to sort out the characteristics of the cases. And then three superordinate propositions and related subordinate propositions that could be comprehensive of the characteristics were selected.
The major findings of the study were as follows:
First, there appeared make-believe of things, make-believe of roles and make-believe of situations in the imaginative play of the toddlers in the two-year-old class named "Bada." The toddlers engaged in make- believe of diverse things, in which decentering and decontextualization took place, and they also engaged in make-believe of various roles, which represented their sociocultural experience. Also, they engaged in make-believe of situations, in which there were more realistic elements.
Second, each of the toddlers enjoyed imaginative play by themselves, attempting various imaginative activities. Sometimes they were willing to wait to play with their friends, and sometimes they didn''t want to be disturbed and refused to play with their peers.
Third, the toddlers had social interaction with one another while they engaged in imaginative play together and performed their roles, and shared experience, verbal communication, rules and relationships were found in that course.