Help Your Child’s Development by Learning What is Imaginative Play
Play time is so important for children. Through it, they learn about the world around them – how things work, how people react. This is why it’s important that we as parents understand how play works to help our children reach their full development. Armed with this information, we can choose toys that are appropriate for each step.
We’ve all seen how babies love to copy us, from making faces to playing ‘Patty Cake’. This is called “imitative’ play; the child watches you do something, and then imitates what they’ve seen. But as children grow, their form of play begins to change. They imitate less, and start imagining new situations for themselves. This form of play, called ‘imaginative play’, helps children learn the social, emotional and cognitive skills they need for their successful development.
We start to see an overlap of imitative and imaginative play styles, starting when a child is around three years of age. This is when children start to feel more secure about their place in the world. and start wanting to be a bit more independent. At this age, you’ll often hear children talking about pretending, and you’ll see them play house with dolls or stuffed animals. They may take inanimate objects like a block of wood and pretend it’s a car or airplane, and around this age you’ll also see more children with imaginary friends. Playing house or ’shop keeper’ types of games are also favorites at this age, as children start to imagine themselves taking on the roles of the people they see around them.
As parents or educators, what’s our role in helping children during this step in their development? It’s most important that you don’t force your ideas of imagination on your child. Let your child’s play style evolve naturally.
However, you should encourage the child’s own sense of imagination by giving them the materials and time to do it themselves. Children should have toys that are interactive, like costumes, dress up clothes and dolls or action figures. These toys allow them to act out various scenarios that prepare them for real life. Also make sure that children have building and manipulative toys, like wooden or plastic blocks.
To learn more about how toys can encourage cooperative and imaginative play, check out Kelly de Borda’s page on the Savannah Dollhouse. Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.
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