Why Pretend Play is Important for developing many skills in Children?

Have you noticed your child calling his pencil a ship and pretending that it is sailing in the sea? Your child tries to represent an object as something else by giving it action, motion, varied names, speed, etc. This Pretend Play for kids is very important in developing many skills such as:-

Language skills

While playing kids tend to use their parents’ language and can perfectly imitate their parents, friends and teachers.  Have you ever noticed that while playing with friends they might use words which you never thought they knew? Sometimes they would come up with the sentences that you once used with them. My daughter remembers each and every word I use with her and would bring them up, word by word, whenever similar situations arise.

Social and Emotional Skills

When kids engage in pretend or dramatic play, they actively experiment with social and emotional roles of life. During cooperative play, they learn how to take turns, share responsibility and creatively solve problems. While pretending to be someone else, kids learn to be in someone else’s shoes which help them develop empathy. Your child also develops self-esteem when he learns that he could be anyone just by pretending.

Thinking Skills

Pretend play helps your child by providing a variety of problems to solve. Deciding the roles to play and things to be done, things required to make a house, prepare food for the family, etc, call upon important cognitive thinking skills that your child will use in every aspect of his life, now and forever.

Fosters Imagination

Pretend play gives wings to their imagination and they come up with some brilliant innovative ideas. You might find them making great things out of waste stuff.

So let their imagination fly high and give them more time to play and discover better versions of themselves. Playtime is the most important learning exercise your child does outside a classroom. And trust me, smartness in this class is equally significant.