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Imaginative play at the preschool age is vitally important to the development of your child! With summer ramping up and an endless expanse of time to fill with activities, imaginary play is a perfect indoor activity that stimulates a child’s imagination and their brain!
Imaginative play is essentially when children are role playing and acting out various experiences they may have had or are of some interest to them. In layman’s terms? It’s “playing pretend.” Kids will usually do this naturally, but we can certainly help encourage this type of play.
There are tons of benefits to imaginative play –
Social and emotional skills.
Through reenactment, children can identify with the adult world. By playing pretend, children can develop empathy for others through imitation or interaction with other children in the reenactment. They also learn to express their feelings when they pretend to be others and they may feel more confident expressing emotion this way than through the vulnerability of a one-on-one conversation.
Language skills.
Listen to kids when they’re playing pretend and you’ll probably overhear vocabulary and phrases you didn’t even know they knew! By imitating or reenacting, they get to practice these bigger words and longer phrases!
Thinking skills.
While playing pretend, children learn to share and problem solve. When they’re playing together, they may come across a puzzling situation that they can try to work out in a safe way. Studies have even shown that “rough-housing” in moderation can actually help develop the frontal lobe of the brain that regulates behavior, and not turn them into aggressive bullies as some may incorrectly infer.
As the long summer looms ahead, encourage your preschoolers to play pretend as often as possible. Get together with their school friends over the break and watch them play pretend together!
Try listening to podcasts to jumpstart your child’s imagination!
Want to learn more about Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy of Fort Mill located in Fort Mill, South Carolina? Our mission is to provide secure, nurturing, and educational environments for children ages 6 weeks – 12 years. We help children to bloom into responsible, considerate, and contributing members of society. For more information, give us a call or stop by for a tour! We’d love to get to know you and your family.