Imaginative play has always been popular amongst young children and you can probably remember making up games either on your own or with your friends when you were little. Although watching your children acting out scenarios may be entertaining to watch, this role-playing is incredibly beneficial for them. Let’s take a closer look at why imaginative play for young children is so important and the benefits it has.
Language Development
The first benefit of young children enjoying imaginative play is the opportunity for language development. Creating their own games enables young children to improve their vocabulary and experiment with a variety of words in their own time and space. This means that they’re less likely to feel embarrassed about using a new word and pronouncing it incorrectly or not using it in the correct situation. They can use their new words to produce a story and interact with their friends with ease.
Improving Thinking Skills
When children choose to create games individually and with their friends, they are improving their thinking skills as they come up with their own ideas. Pretend play allows them to solve problems and think of new ideas. For example, if they are playing with a friend and they both want to be the same character, they must come up with a solution so they can both enjoy the game. These thinking and compromising skills will be useful for the rest of their lives.
Physical And Emotional Development
With imaginative play, children can express both their positive and negative feelings in a safe space. If they are experiencing any difficult emotions, they can work through them and learn to understand them.
Role play is also beneficial for physical development as they can learn how to verbally and non-verbally express themselves through imaginative play. Whether they decide to paint, draw or build with play dough, imaginative play encourages hand-eye-co-ordination, which is necessary for the development of young children.
Social Development
Allowing your children to enjoy imaginative play also enables them to improve their social skills. Interacting with other children from a young age is a vital skill that everyone should acquire. From childhood right through to adulthood, you must socialise with people in society. Therefore, by experiencing imaginative play, children can interact with other children and learn how to spend time with children their age, instead of just spending time with their parents.
Additionally, interacting will enable children to learn what they can and can’t say, how to share toys and play fairly. Understanding social relationships through social activities at a young age helps children to develop social cues and experiment with different tones of voice, emotions and eye contact. Whether young children play with other children or with dolls and action figures, they can learn to hold conversations, even if they are imagining the response from the toy.
Pretend, imaginative play for young children is so important with unlimited benefits. Dolls and action figures, and toys such as pretend play kitchens allow children to socialise and play together. Toys that encourage different games can provide hours of fun and entertainment for young children. Browse our range of toys that are perfect for imaginative play or get in touch to find out more about which toys are ideal for your children, today.