Mrs. I. was puzzled as to any connection between his gum-boots and a biplane , but made no comment on this .sx She said , ' Do you mean that you want to go up to the carpenter's room and make a biplane of wood ?sx ' ' Yes ' , and he took her hand to pull her up .sx They went up together , and he ran to Mr. H. saying , ' I want to make a biplane ' .sx Mrs. I. left him there , after seeing him pick up a piece of wood , and say , ' This will be the propeller ' .sx About twenty minutes later , he came downstairs holding a well-shaped biplane , about 15 ins. to 18 ins. long .sx Flushed with victory , he walked across the schoolroom , trying to get the attention of James and the others , and saying with intense earnestness , ' Because , look !sx Because , look !sx ' Then he ran to Mrs. I. with the repeated request for his gum-boots , and when these were put on ; ran out into the garden , filled the sand-pit with water , and walked about in the water saying .sx ' It's flying across the Atlantic ' .sx " ( c ) " The children had made ' trains ' with chairs , and Dan told the others , ' I'm going to London to-day really ' , with much emphasis .sx Alfred said , ' I've been to London once ' .sx Dan :sx ' No , you have not !sx ' Alfred :sx ' Oh , yes , I've been once , really ' .sx Then there was general talk about Dan going to London to-day really , while they were all pretending to go to Hunstanton , America and India , now .sx " Again , the incident on 21.10.25 led first to a whole series of make-believe plays , making " houses " and having elaborate parties in them , and then on to inquiry about the actual pulleys .sx " The lights in the schoolroom are on pulleys , and Frank ( 5;11 ) to-day pointed out ' that white thing above the light ' ( the white china weight on the pulley ) , and asked , ' What is it for ?sx ' Mrs. I. pulled the light down until it was within his reach , and he moved it up and down with great interest , calling the others to ' come and see ' .sx The children then asked Mrs. I. to pull all the six lights down low , and they made ' houses ' under each of them .sx They all felt the bulbs , ' Feel how warm it is ' .sx " The pulling up and down of the lights , for this frequent play of " houses " , led to questions about the pulleys , and as the children could not see these properly owing to their height , we bought some aluminiumpulleys , which they fixed up at various points on the walls , in the schoolroom and the garden ; and then by using them in further play , the children came to understand their mechanism and practical value .sx In the same way , much of the cooking came from their family play .sx And the garden bonfire was often turned into an " engine " or a " house on fire " , with " the firemen coming to put it out " .sx This , in turn , led to lots of talk about firemen and fire engines and hoses and ladders , etc. ; and later on , to a visit to a real fire-station .sx Again , in their family play , the children often modelled elaborate telephone systems from one " house " to another , which gave rise to many discussions as to the real construction and arrangement of the wires and instruments , and the working of a telephone exchange ; and was later on linked up with the visit to an actual exchange .sx This first kind of relation' between phantasy and thought may , perhaps , be described as a circumstantial relation .sx It is , however , clear that the cognitive value of the play situation rests also upon a second and deeper relation between thought and phantasy .sx Conative nexus of thought and phantasy .sx Much of the child's earliest interest in physical objects is certainly derivative , and draws its impetus from early infantile wishes and fears in relation to its parents .sx As I suggested in an earlier passage , the first value which the physical world has for the child is as a canvas upon which to project his personal wishes and anxieties , and his first form of interest in it is one of dramatic representation .sx The psycho-analysis of young children by Klein's play technique has shown that .sx engines and motors and fires and lights and water and mud and animals have a profoundly symbolic meaning for them , rooted in infantile phantasy .sx Their ability to concern them-selves with real objects and real happenings is a relative matter .sx It exists , in a very effective sense , and can be used for intellectual growth , as I have shown .sx But its deepest sources lie in the first " symbol-formation " of infantile mental life ; and it will continue to renew its vitality from the repressed wishes and fears and phantasies of that period .sx Psycho-analytic studies of little children , moreover , have also shown that in their free dramatic play , children work out their inner conflicts in an external field , thus lessening the pressure of the conflict , and diminishing guilt and anxiety .sx Such a lessening of inner tension through dramatic representation makes it easier for the child to control his real behaviour , and to accept the limitations of the real world .sx In other words , it furthers the development of the ego , and of the sense of reality .sx It helps to free the child from his first personal schemas , and to enhance his readiness to understand the objective physical world for its own sake .sx Imaginative play builds a bridge by which the child can pass from the symbolic values of things to active inquiry into their real construction and real way of working .sx This , then , is one reason why , under the favourable conditions of ample opportunity for imaginative play and free dramatic representation , children can also show a relatively disinterested concern with actual things and physical processes .sx It suggests , further , how serious a mistake it would be to try to make little children grow along the lines which these records show that they can follow .sx They must be given a large measure of freedom to imagine or to think as the need and occasion arises .sx If we tried to teach them these thingsformally , or to exert pressure upon them in these directions , we should simply waste our time , and might even do positive harm .sx Effect of anxiety .sx We had some striking evidence to confirm the view that anxiety is highly unfavourable to free inquiry and interest in the objective world .sx Of Phineas , for example , whose passionate interest in things and events is strikingly shown in this section of the records , the following incidents are recorded under social relations :sx " 14.2.27. Phineas ( 3;11 ) would not take off his hat and coat and gloves for a long time this morning .sx He sat , with them on , on the edge of the platform in a very quiet and subdued mood , and did not for a long time join in any of the other children's occupations , nor show any of his usual interests .sx This occurred every morning for about a week .sx Several times each morning he asked , ' Is it time to go home yet ?sx ' , although in the ordinary way he is reluctant to go , and far too absorbed in his pursuits to think of the end of the morning .sx This week he has also been much more easily distracted by the others from any work he has been engaged on , leaving it every few minutes to take up theirs in a listless way , and then coming back to his own .sx After about a week , he returned to his usual self again .sx This has coincided with the birth of a baby brother ( the third child in the family) .sx " The misery of fear and jealousy aroused by the arrival of the new baby had thus awakened all Phineas' deep infantile phantasies , and grave anxiety connected with them .sx His general enterprise and active interest in the real world was quite inhibited and lost for the time being .sx The same thing happened with Alice , aged just three .sx Usually independent , cheerful and full of fun , interested in the garden and the play material , she showed , after the birth of twins in her home , a marked return to babyish ways , crying at the least denial , getting easily tired and irritable , not able to do anything for herself , and quite dull and uninterested in playthings or the animals and plants that usually held her attention .sx This listlessness stayed for about a week .sx Then she began to tell us , ' I've got twins ' , and again to take an active interest in her playmates and toys .sx A third striking example was that of Christopher ( 5;9 ) , after he had hurt Dan's finger with a hammer when they were playing together in Dan's home one afternoon .sx ( 29.6.26. ) During the next two days , he was in a state of complete boredom and listlessness .sx There were no other days like these in all the two years he was in the school , for he was normally most eager about all our games and all our inquiries .sx He was , for the time , quite unable to lose himself in any pursuit , and wandered about helplessly , asking , " What can I do , Mrs. I.? What is there to do ?sx " .sx These negative examples support the view that mental alertness and an active interest in objects are very dependent upon freedom from anxiety and inner tension .sx They thus help to make clear the indirect aid to the intellectual life which make-believe play brings , by giving external body and form to the phantastic wishes and guilt of infancy , and thus allaying anxiety .sx This second relation between thought and phantasy is based upon their conative nexus .sx There is a third relation , however , which lies more strictly within the field of cognition .sx Make-believe and hypothesis .sx The ability to evoke the past in imaginative play seems to me to be very closely connected with the growth of the power to evoke the future in constructive hypothesis , and to develop the con-sequences of " ifs " .sx Imaginative play at its most active may be looked upon as the prototype of " mental experiment " in the sense of Rignano and Mach .sx Only now and then is it pure mechanical reproduction , of the kind which Spearman rejects from the sphere of cognition .sx The child re-creates selectively those elements in past situations which can embody his emotional or intellectual need of the present , and he adapts the details moment by moment to the present situation .sx ( Incidentally , his play is a starting point not only for cognitive development but also for the adaptive and creative intention which when fully developed marks out the artist , the novelist , the poet .sx ) And in his make-believe , he takes the first steps towards that emancipation of meanings from the here and now of a concrete situation , which makes possible hypotheses and the " as if " consciousness .sx Phineas provides us with some beautiful examples of this vivid construction of an imagined situation , and the degree to which it can be elaborated and organised .sx On one occasion , he ( 3;10 ) and other children had made a " ship " in the schoolroom , with an arrangement of tables and chairs .sx Phineas' part in this was comparatively a passive one , as he was but " a passenger " on the ship , and was going on with his own pursuits on the voyage , sitting at a table and sewing a canvas bag .sx Miss D. was with him " in the ship " , and all around them , the crew and the captain carried on the business of the voyage .sx And when presently a new supply of thread was wanted , and Miss D. said to Phineas , " Will you get it out of the drawer ?sx " , Phineas replied , " I can't get out of the ship while it's going , can I ?sx " And called out in a stentorian voice to the " captain " , " Stop the ship !sx I want to get out !sx " After some demur , the ship was brought into " a landing-stage " , and Phineas got out , secured his thread , and got in again , saying , " Now , it can go again !sx " .sx Another day , he ( 4;0 ) and some of the other younger children were taking .sx part in dramatic expression with music , at the suggestion of Mrs. S. They were pretending to gather flowers in a basket , while she played to them .sx