Three Reasons Parents Can’t Afford to Neglect Imaginative Play
Imaginative games help kids developed their learning skills faster. Free Pic by Nesstor4u2 via morguefile.com
Ask almost any parent and they’ll tell you that imaginative play is good for children. Unfortunately, it’s also something that often falls by the wayside in our always-on-the-go culture. Between work, commutes and household duties, parents find themselves crunched for time. Many parents also feel obligated to provide their children with a wide range of enrichment activities, such as sports and music, to ensure that their children are well-rounded. While such activities are generally positive, they also crowd out time for imaginative play.
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However, there is growing evidence that imaginative play should be more of a priority for parents of young children. The following three benefits of imaginative play offer a compelling case for parents and caregivers to make time for it every day.
1. Imaginative play helps children learn how to self-regulate. If you’ve ever wondered why children have a hard time being still and resisting impulses, it’s because that the area of the brain that controls what is called “executive functioning” is still immature. Executive function plays a critical role in a child’s ability to manage their emotions and reactions, resist impulsive behavior and pay attention to instructions.
Psychologists believe that imaginative play helps children develop self control by giving them the opportunity to engage in what is known as “private speech”. This is the internal dialogue that children have with themselves as they direct their own actions and plot out their play. The more practice that children have with private speech, the better they become at self-control at other situations as they apply this ability to guide themselves to act in appropriate ways.
2. Imaginative play helps children develop strong social skills. Playing house, school or superheroes with their friends often requires cooperation, negotiation and practice in being assertive and being kind. Children learn how to work with their peers to act out a story or create an imaginative world.
Parents and caregivers can and should step in to help children find a way to resolve their disputes in a positive way. This gives them valuable practice in using their words to work out problems in a creative way that will benefit everyone.
3. Imaginative play helps children’s cognitive development. Along with helping executive function develop, imaginative play also helps children develop stronger working memories as they create increasingly complex narratives. Working memory is crucial in being able to solve multi-step problems and to grasp complicated abstract concepts in later life.
During imaginative play, children must remember their role, the other character’s role, what has happened before and the goal that they are working towards. They also gain experience in flexible thinking as they react to new developments in the plot and figure out a way to incorporate them into the game. These experiences help children become more adept at problem solving and critical thinking.
How Parents Can Help
The most important thing that parents can do to help their child play imaginatively is to provide ample time and space for such play to take place. This could mean cutting down on other activities so that more free time is available for open-ended play to take place. Parents should also take an active role in playing with their children and limit screen time and other enticing distractions. Here are a few more tips that parents can take to encourage imaginative play in their children.
Do provide toys that encourage open-ended, imaginative play. Props such as toy kitchens and cooking tools, dolls and doll houses, puppet theaters, costumes, building toys and tools can all play a role in kick-starting your child’s imagination.
Avoid or limit toys that direct a child’s play. Toys based on popular cartoons, video games or toys that rely on batteries to do the work can inhibit a child’s imagination.
Help your child stretch the number of minutes that they can sustain their play. Encourage them to stick with the role that they have chosen and avoid acting out of character.
Read together every day and incorporate the stories that you’ve read into your play.
Be patient and understand that children learn incrementally. It’s normal for little ones to be impulsive, bossy or have short attention spans at first. Do gently redirect them and don’t let it discourage you if they need a lot of assistance or seem easily distracted at first. Stick with it and gradually work with them to increase their self control, attention span and concentration. Games such as Simon Says and Mother May I? can help them develop the skills that they’ll need to play imaginatively.
About the author: Jacob Maslow is a father of five who has played his share of superheroes and school. When he’s not playing with his gang, he’s a marketing director at Today’s Concept, an online retailer that sells a wide variety of toys that help children learn and develop including the well-regarded Melissa & Doug toys.
