How much time does your toddler spend partaking in imaginative play? These days, it’s more likely to see toddler’s transfixed by a screen than it is to see them using their imaginations. This means they could be missing out on essential development skills.
Research has revealed that imaginative play helps a child develop creativity, be socially competent and have much more understanding towards others. Therefore, if you want to help your little one develop these essential skills, it’s a good idea to start encouraging them to use their imaginations.
Here, you’ll discover the top reasons why imaginative play is important for toddlers.
Helping To Boost Social And Language Skills
When your toddler takes part in pretend play, did you know they’re actually developing social and language skills? So, how exactly does solitary pretend play improve social abilities? Well, it’s because when your toddler is using imaginative play, they’re focusing on someone else’s needs, other than their own.
Whether it’s an imaginary friend, or they’re making up imaginary scenarios with their toys – your little one is practicing looking after the needs and wants of someone else. Even if they aren’t real, this is still helping your child to learn more about social skills and the needs of others.
As they are making up their own stories, toddlers are also able to expand their language skills. Their minds start to be able to turn ideas into words, making it easier for them to start expressing themselves. It’s also thought children who do partake in imaginative play have a much better understanding of grammar, along with the words they’ve used, compared to children who don’t use their imaginations during play.
Of course, the better their social and language skills, the better they’ll do at school. If they partake in imaginary play with their peers, they’ll experience even more benefits. Part of pretend role playing involves listening to orders and rules given by others. So, their listening skills will develop at a faster rate, too.
It Can Help Your Toddler Work Out Scary Scenarios
It’s common for toddlers to start taking part in imaginative role-playing scenarios which relate to things in everyday life that they’re wary of. Especially common is the doctor’s office role play.
You may notice they use their dolls, teddies and other figures to act out a visit to the doctors. This will likely involve being checked over with a stethoscope, before getting shots. The reason they do it is because scary scenarios such as the doctor’s office, play on your little one’s mind. They use the imaginative play to make sense of the situation and it can also lead them to feel more comfortable during their next doctor’s visit.
So, imaginative play can really help your little one to come to terms with potentially scary situations and develop the skills to handle them.
It Helps Them Combine Skills And Knowledge
Imaginative play can also help toddlers combine the skills and knowledge they’ve learnt so far. It’s really important for children to be given opportunities to blend together skills and knowledge as they develop at such a fast pace.
Think of the common grocery store pretend play scenario for example. You’ll start to see your toddler’s grocery store skills improve as they get older. It will start out pretty basic, where they’ll pretend to be the shopkeeper and they’ll pretend to sell goods to their imaginary customers. Then, they’ll progress onto grouping specific types of pretend groceries together, they’ll start to create their own store signs and eventually they’ll even start trying to work out the grocery bill.
Seeing them put all of their knowledge and skills together and watching them progress can be really rewarding. It also helps them to transfer these skills into everyday life.
It Boosts Their Problem-Solving Abilities
During pretend play, your toddler will come across a number of challenges. Remember, they learn from the world around them so if they see you or other adults going through various dilemmas, they’re going to start using those as inspiration for their pretend play. This means they’re going to also need to work out solutions to different issues which may crop up.
Imaginative play can really boost your little one’s problem-solving skills, making it easier for them to solve any problems which may crop up in their own life later on.
It Enhances Emotional Development
Another awesome benefit of pretend play, is it really helps to enhance your toddler’s emotional development. Not only will it help them to understand more about different feelings, but it will also help them to express their feelings in a more effective way.
How To Encourage Your Toddler To Partake In Imaginative Play
Imaginative play is practically a natural instinct for your toddler, so this means it’s really easy to encourage them to use their imaginative skills. Simply limit the amount of time they’re allowed to spend watching TV or playing on your smartphone and follow some of the tips below:
- Provide suitable toys and props
- Read them more stories
- Give them a separate area to practice imaginative play
- Play along with them
The above are the best ways to encourage your toddler to take part in more imaginative play sessions. Reading to them more is an especially great tip as it helps to build their imagination. Through the stories, they’ll learn more scenarios, and this will be followed through into their play sessions.
Conclusion
Overall, imaginative play is extremely important in terms of toddler development. So, if you want to help ensure your child is happy, healthy and developing at the right pace, start encouraging them to use their imaginations, rather than watching something on a screen.
Soon my baby will become a toddler. They say toddlers are difficult to raise compared to the babies. Therefore, I am reading a lot on raising toddlers. This is a good article, informative and interesting.
Toddlers are very imaginative. I have observed this when my niece and nephew were toddlers. They told things that were far away from the truth. They cannot differentiate between the reality and imagination, and we can use their imaginative power to boost their intelligence and social skills.
That is true, vinaya. Children do have a great imagination, an example is an imaginary friend. They can make anything possible when they use their imagination.
As for toddlers, yes, they’re more difficult to raise than babies because they are so active during the toddler stage; their curiosity is at its peak so you need to watch them like a hawk.
Learning is more concrete when more senses are involved. This is true not just for adults but also true for babies. So rather than just letting your little one watch something on screen, Try to encourage them to do more motor skills with imaginative play. That way, learning would be more concrete to them.
Yes, you’re right. That’s what we call hands-on learning in adulthood. Yes, we can watch and learn about things on YouTube and other videos, but it’s not the same as getting an actual experience. It’s like saying sandpaper is rough to the touch and you show the child a picture instead. The child would not fully understand the concept from a picture. Have the child touch the sandpaper and he/she will understand the concept better.
While I am one of those parents who let my kid use a gadget every once in a while, I am also engaging him to a creative activity. Now that I’ve read this, it is an imaginative play for him. What we do during these times of the holiday season, we’ll make Christmas cards from dried flowers from our garden. One time we built a toy gun made from rolled paper and rubber bands and shoot at some targets at our yard. He saw this tutorial on youtube about paper guns that can shoot as well. so we built them.
When I go to the grocery store, usually my purchases are placed in their delivery boxes and I will keep those boxes and he’ll create something from it. Like swords or shields and stuff. It’s true that when you engage them to creative activities, their mind is enhanced.
I would just invest in paints and glues and other craft materials and let him do his stuff. I realized that with this constant activity, he would usually tinker and fix something rather than start complaining about a broken toy or something.
Based from my firsthand experience, this is so beneficial to a growing child’s emotional, physical and social development.
Congratulations, AmieBotella! You’re on the right track in developing your child’s creativity through imaginative play.
Allowing one’s child to use gadgets to watch educational shows or play educational apps helps a lot in their learning. Use of gadgets is not all bad. What is bad is over-exposure to it or excessive use to the point that they no longer do anything else but use gadgets.
Imaginative play is also good for early literacy! It helps them practice their narrative skills. If you want to assist them in this, a good way to do so is to ask them what kind of scenario they’re playing up and then ask follow-up questions to get them thinking about the imaginary world they’re created!
Good point there, ecole11j. When you let them talk about what they’re playing, you’re developing their communication/language skills. They would not be ashamed to speak in front of people or approach other people and be friendly.
The need to allow the kids involved in solitary plays like this cannot be overemphasized. You, as the mom, won’t realize how important such situations are to your kids until you try to stop them. I used to play with a toy car while I was growing and always act the driver of the car with some imaginary passengers at the back. It was quite a great moment for me back then when I was little and one I couldn’t forget in a hurry.
Yes, we cannot emphasize the need for imaginary play enough. It’s a must in order to develop a child’s ESSENTIAL development skills.
Good for you, you played with your toy cars. As for my second son, he dismantled all toys with screws and it annoyed me big time, haha. Now that he’s grown up, I realized that was actually a good thing because he was inquisitive. He could already reformat computers as early as 12 years of age if I recall it correctly.
I wanted to laugh as well when I read how your son dismantled his toy cars, but the end part of the story showed something. Imaginative play can bring innovation from these kids and it’s a good thing that your son now can do it better with a computer. That’s awesome to read and one I’m looking forward to see my future kids do.
Most of the time, adults often underestimate how important imaginative play is for toddlers. Playing is a way for children to practice their social and motor skills outside their own world. Role playing could seem to be a very simple activity, but with it, our young toddlers learn how to use their skills such as learning to dress, how to eat on their own, and how to interact with other toddlers.
You’re right, fern2x2001, some parents do underestimate the important role of imaginative play. They are content with handing their kids a gadget they could tinker with all day or sit them in front of the television, so they could do what they need to do at home or with their personal lives. But this should not be. As you said, imaginative play may seem simple but it brings numerous benefits.
In this day & age, it’s sad that the concept of playtime for kids is mostly confined to watching videos or using tablets/gadgets. There’s nothing wrong with keeping up with technology but boundaries need to be set. Remember the days when we played “house or cops & robbers?” I think it’s very important to let children use all their senses to help promote their cognitive development.
This is very true and a big reason why screen time should be limited for young children. Imaginative play is legitimately important to a child’s development.
Yes, my thoughts exactly, katherine 🙂 Gadgets are not bad per se, it’s the way they’re used that creates the problem. Indeed, there should be limits.
In today’s world when all of us are confine with our gadget it is very important for a toddler to encourage imaginative play. During pretend playtime it helps our child to develop their thinking skills and helps solve problem to make their playtime more enjoyable and fun using simple toys. It also helps the child to development their social and emotional skills. It helps them to expand their thinking on how the world works and develop empathy and dealing with other people. Their language skills also help the child to develop by talking to other kids and making up a stories about their playtime. Lastly imaginative play is very important because this fun memories and playtime will teach your child positive behavior that will help them in their future life.
Thank you for emphasizing those points, Anna. Imaginative play truly has numerous benefits than we can ever emphasize.
Help us spread the word to those who need to know about it 🙂
We all know that all of us under go in this stage where we play imaginative.
But honestly every time I saw my niece and nephew plays imaginative it looks weird to be but now thank you for letting us know that playing imaginative is just normal.
Yes, for adults, that would be weird. But for the kids, they seem to be in a different world – a world they have created. So parents should encourage their children to play “productively”, not sit and play with gadgets.
You can be very sure to expect a lot of wired creativity from kids because I would say that it’s possible that they cannot discern good act from bad act, so therefore it’s left for the parents to chip in corrections where it’s necessary.
his article fits me right now, my almost 3years old daughter is very active and I can see her wanting to play with me with her toys, she really wants her dolls and stuff toys talking with each other her and my voice. I can see that her imagination is really flourishing and with different scenarios in her mind. I mostly enjoy what she is doing because she builds her self confidence in talking even though I can’t understand some words she utters. Still she seems to grasp the idea of good communication. Makes me proud alot.
You’re right, melvs. Imaginative play not only boosts a child’s self-confidence, but also her communication skills. Thank you for pointing that out. That is why parents should encourage their kids to engage in imaginative play and not use gadgets as a sitter.
My son has an imagination but he doesn’t do it all the time which is ok for me but he is simply amazing and very polite.
Many thanks for the tips you share today we already know its Benefits, we will make your tips on our twin baby.
You’re very much welcome, chev. We’re really happy to know you’ll be able to use these tips with your twins. Keep it up!
After reading this article, I really laugh out loud. I realized I got a wrong information. When my son was 4 years old he doesn’t have a playmate so he plays alone. Every time I saw him talking alone or talking to someone that looks like he has a playmate but no one was there, I feel so worried and scared. I’m thinking his playing with ghost or elves or elements that we cannot see. I stop him from playing and let him watch his favorite cartoons instead. I was very young then so I didn’t know it was only a nonsense folk stories. If I only knew that imaginary friend is really important to toddlers, I let him play alone and enjoy his wild imagination.
So sorry to hear that, Belinda. I hope he still grew up to be a well-developed child.
At least now we are assured you will not do the same mistake if you will have other kids in the future. We’re really glad this article cleared things for you 🙂
Toddlers have special kind of brain that is free from stress unlike adults own. This is because kids unlike adults have less worrying them, so the best way to improve their mental health and sharpness is through engaging in imaginative plays and scenario.
This helps with how creative they could become, how smart they can get and the kind of relationship they tend to develop with their peer groups. Kids are wonderful and interesting when they are full of confidence, and they get such from how their mind works.
Yes, you’re right. Kids live stress-free lives so they are able to think creatively. We could say their minds are still “unpolluted” by all the “evils” in this world. We really should be encouraging them to do imaginative play so they grow up to become confident and sharp individuals, as well as individuals who know how to get along with others.
Yeah I would say a big yes to that statement about kids mind being referred to have unpolluted mind or brain being free from the evils to the world. They are the most innocent being the world has even seen but the problem is that the ones who are a problem to the world today actually were once kids.
Involving kids in imaginative plays is really an intelligent step towards making then develop a creative side to their personality.
When I was a kid my parents made sure we had moments when we exercised such behaviors be it during play or during family times together. We were always given a task to come up with something very imaginative every week and the winner gets something special. It was just fun for us back then, but now I see what it really was. It has help in making me the creative I am today.
I think your post is a very brilliant one showing how parents can motivate their children towards being creative. Thanks for sharing the information.
Thank you very much for the wonderful feedback, Adesuwa08. We truly appreciate it.
Thank you as well for sharing your own personal experience with imaginative play when you were growing up. I’m sure many parents can attest to similar situations with their kids.