Why is Imaginative Play Important?

December 14, 2020

As parents and caregivers, we sometimes downplay the value of imaginative play, but we know it enables children’s social and emotional development. We know that play is a crucial part of childhood and that it is essential to help children navigate the world around them.

Imaginative Play and How It Encourages Creativity

When children play imaginatively, it is up to them to design scenarios and use objects for out-of-the-box applications. Imaginative play usually refers to children who practice pretending or acting out roles – by doing things. Of course, children can enrich these activities with fantasy, but how does it work for them?

When children’s play is often focused on teaching and programs, and their toys increasingly inhibit imaginative play, children have no chance of policing themselves. Games that are structured and bound by rules mean children have fewer opportunities to use imagination and creativity. It’s important to balance structure with the child’s own imaginative direction.

Helping Children Play Imaginatively

To encourage children to play imaginatively and creatively, you should create a safe play area that is child-friendly and full of toys that stimulate their imagination and creativity.

If you want to encourage imaginative play with your child, introduce them to a scenario or situation, and then provide them with some important props.

Using open objects to represent something else, for example, or pretending that a box is a racing car, are skills that help young children gain perspectives and foster creativity, which is essential for their development. Suggestions for parents should also be embedded in their children’s play and encourage imaginative games.

The Importance of Imaginative Play

Imaginative play is important because it enables social and emotional development by helping children consider various confrontations and solutions. While considering that playing has some wonderful cognitive benefits, it is important to remember that it is very often physical and a wonderful opportunity for a child to be active, exercise and develop their motor skills.

Children enjoy this, but I also believe that pretending and other imaginative forms of play are crucial for the child’s healthy development. Although the importance of pretending to play is clear for the development of the child, children who cannot pretend to play or who have not developed the ability to pretend to play may require some form of intervention in their lives.

As parents and caregivers, it is essential to promote all kinds of games with your child, but while there is always a debate about how important fake games are for a child’s development, creative and imaginative games are crucial for a child’s healthy development and should not be ignored if the games and rules that are necessary for children to learn how to deal with competition and the rules of the real world are not to be forgotten.

How Imaginative Play Supports Cognitive Development

This article will help parents develop imaginative and creative play activities for their children to take them away from the screen and promote healthy development.

Fantasy is practically an instinct for toddlers, and that means that it is straightforward to encourage toddlers to use their imaginative skills. One of the most important aspects of what can be considered an imaginative game are scenarios in which a child uses their imagination (and sometimes props) to play a scenario. Imaginative games allow your child to try out new ideas.

Avoid imposing rules on how the game should look like, such as the game rules or play order, etc. Imaginative game ideas can help to start an amazing game for your child.

Imaginary play forms a key role in a child’s development, and it is important to encourage imagination in childhood. When children use their imagination to play, they develop crucial psychological and emotional skills to understand the world they live in and their relationship with it. They learn to solve problems, create new opportunities, and even change the world around them. It is therefore important to use imagination in life, during childhood, and beyond.

Block Out Imagination Time

Create a specific time for imaginative play where you provide toys and everyday objects. This is an entertaining way to make sure you incorporate this into your child care.

Despite evidence of the benefits of imaginative play, the number of children under five playing with toys and other everyday objects has fallen. Ensuring this is a part of their week allows children not to miss important milestones in their development because they only have to pretend to have their own imagination.

As part of our preschool curriculum, we use set periods of imagination time at Happy Bunnies Child Care School to ensure that your child gets this rich experience. You can enhance this at home, too; choose a set time each day or each week when you explore make-believe with your child.

It’s magical!

Great Further Reading

Interesting Facts

A 2012 study found that only 51 percent of parents take their children outside to walk or play each day, and some kindergarten classes have removed recess altogether. (healthline.com)

Research has demonstrated that parents who talk to their children regularly explaining features about nature and social issues, or who read or tell stories at bedtime, seem to be most likely to foster pretend play (Shmukler 1981; Singer & Singer 2005). (psychologytoday.com)

By 24 months , your toddler will most likely display signs of “representational thinking” and “symbolic thinking” in other words, one object (like a toy banana) can start to stand in for another (like a phone ring-ring, who’s calling on the banana phone!). (whattoexpect.com)