In what stage do children begin to create a shared fantasy and act it out with others?

Cooperative play is the stage in which children engage in shared activities and collaborate to create a fantasy or storyline that they act out together. During this phase, children begin to work together toward a common goal, using their imaginations to design and enact scenarios that often involve roles, rules, and collaboration with peers. This type of play is crucial for developing social skills, such as negotiation, cooperation, and empathy, as children learn to interact more meaningfully with one another.

In contrast, parallel play involves children playing side by side but not engaging with each other, which limits the opportunity for shared fantasy creation. Associative play includes some interaction and sharing, but it is less structured and doesn't typically involve the organized cooperative efforts found in cooperative play. Unoccupied play refers to a state where children are not actively engaged in any play, which means they are not involved in creating shared fantasies at all. Cooperative play stands out as the clear stage for this kind of collaborative imaginative activity.