NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY: The secret of ‘Joy’ — how imaginary play can lead to genius.

It’s true that Joy, who is based on Joy Mangano (now a multimillionaire inventor of a variety of bestselling household products) does have a kind of “special power.” Nothing supernatural, though — just a great imagination and the tenacity to harness it.

But if the movie is accurate, she had access to some things that many kids today do not. She had time to herself to daydream and play and the ability to live in a world largely free of electronic distractions.

Though her mother is constantly watching soap operas, Joy is more interested in using household items — paper, tape, crayons — to invent things. Her first invention was a glow-in-the-dark flea collar to make pets more visible to cars at night.

Though Joy came from an ordinary working-class household, it turns out that her childhood shares some elements with many of the world’s creative geniuses.

In their book “Imagination and Play in the Electronic Age,” Yale researchers Dorothy Singer and Jerome Singer note, “Autobiographical reports or direct interviews conducted with eminent writers, inventors and scientists demonstrate that their early experiences with play in childhood . . . are important features of their creative process.”

They describe how we all have fleeting thoughts or daydreams, but the people later regarded as geniuses are able to pay close attention to those fantasies and harness them for innovation.

Unfortunately, it’s increasingly difficult for children to be able to engage in the kind of pretend play that previous generations enjoyed.

In an article in the January issue of The Atlantic, Yale’s Erika Christakis describes how we’re forcing kids to perform academic exercises at earlier ages and taking time away from free-form imaginative play.

Play is work for children. It’s as important as any academic work. But letting kids play on their own doesn’t generate jobs, unionized workers, or self-importance for adults, so it gets short shrift.