What makes you think that young children haven't been pretend playing since the dawn of humanity? It's part of how children develop theory of mind and empathy,

What makes you think that young children haven't been pretend playing since the dawn of humanity? It's part of how children develop theory of mind and empathy, by walking through different roles and imagining how that person might behave. It's also how they process and internalize previous events. They'll reenact an event over and over. Rough and tumble play is also thought to have some importance in child development, and it isn't limited to humans. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/imhj.21676 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/imhj.21676 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763497000717?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01497...