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Why is pretend play important for children?

by MS Meenakshi

November 22nd 2022, 5:23 pm

Have you noticed children playing with each other pretending to be someone else? You might have even seen your child pretending to be characters from their favorite shows and movies. Most children pretend-play for fun and may even benefit from it. Playing pretend can help build necessary life skills and can be beneficial for young minds. Here's how. 


Nurtures imagination


Role-playing can help your child imagine various scenarios. By acting them out, they can develop their sense of storytelling. Children make up stories on the spot and can often dream up sequences of events. All of this develops and nurtures their imagination.1 Suppose your child is not interested in pretend play. You can facilitate their creative side by giving them toys, like toys they can use to build or to create art or music, for unstructured (but supervised) playtime. Using these toys, you can foster their imagination in creating fun stories.2

 

Emotional and social skills


Through pretend play, your child can learn how to communicate with others. If you are playing with your child, they observe how you bond with them and how different your perspectives are from theirs. They then come to understand how to take turns talking and playing together. Your child could develop feelings of empathy when they actively learn to cooperate and play with their friends. Pretend play can help children create safe and stable bonds with their friends.3

 

Narrative competence


You might have noticed your child posing as a doctor, engineer, astronaut, or someone else. For your child to play a role, they must first develop an idea. Then, they turn this idea into a plot with a beginning, a middle phase with situations or problems, and an end with solutions to those problems. Your child must be doing this to understand how the person they pretend to be is in real life. What they are unwittingly doing is developing their sense of storytelling. Narrative competence is a valuable skill to build over time. You can help by reading to them every day as well.

 

Language development
 

Your little one could learn new words when trying to express their stories. They might have situations they cannot express, and you can teach them new words. Kids learn most of their language by imitating people. They observe you when you pretend, play, and take in whatever you say. You might also hear some unexpected or new words from them.

You could have fun together if you join your child when they play. You might understand how they let their imaginations take over and get to know them better.

 

Disclaimer: The information provided on this site is NOT medical advice and is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, provide medical or behavioral advice, treat, prevent, or cure any disease, condition, or behavior. You should consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding your child’s development to make a medical diagnosis, determine a treatment for a medical condition, or obtain other related advice.
 

References

1)https:// theconversation.com/help-your-children-play -out-a-story-and-watch-them-become-more-creative-61194

2)Hoffman, Jessica, and Sandra Russ. “girlsschools.org.” 

Pretend Play, Creativity, and Emotion Regulation in Children, girlsschools. org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Pretend-Play-Creativity-and-Emotion-Regulation-in-Children.pdf. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022.

3)Galyer, Karma, and Ian Evans. “ResearchGate.” Pretend

Play and the Development of Emotion Regulation in Preschool Children, Jan. 2001, www.researchgate.net/publication/247499648_

Pretend_Play_and_the_Development_of_Emotion_

Regulation_in_Preschool_Children.

 





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