Research increasingly shows that pretend play and make believe is great for child development – Playing is just something that children do, right – Learn Why Is Make Believe Good for Children and is about much more than simple childhood fun.
Here’s why make believe is about much more than simple childhood fun.
And make believe – pretending to be something else or somewhere else – is all part of it.
It’s easy to just accept the things that children do without much thought.
But when you analyze the different facets of pretend play, you realize that it gives children so much more than a few laughs and giggles.
Here’s why make believe is so good for children.
Table of Contents
Creativity And Imagination: Why Is Make Believe Good for Children?
Pretend play in childhood helps to develop creativity into adulthood.
This is not just a ‘nice to have’ characteristic.
Creativity and a good imagination can help people of all ages process situations in the world around them.
For example, a child who is struggling to articulate their feelings about something might be able draw a picture to help them describe what they are feeling.
And reading a story about made up characters can help children draw parallels between a make believe world and their own world.
It can be a more effective way of educating children about certain situations in life.
Creativity can be an outlet for stress too, and managing mental health is something that is important for people of all ages.
If children develop their creativity through make believe play as children, they may find other creative outlets that make them feel happy as they grow older.
Developing creativity and a good imagination can come from many different directions, and adults can support this by finding fun things to do at home or getting involved in some pretend play themselves.
Developing Empathy
Pretend play is also a wonderful way for children to start to understand different perspectives.
When they are pretending to be someone else, it helps them explore the world around them with a different viewpoint.
A popular childhood make believe game is for children to pretend to be a mother or father, since these are the people they are usually closest to and want to emulate.
Playing this game gives them perspectives on how to attend to a baby’s basic needs, such a feeding or putting them to bed.
Whoever they are pretending to be, make believe helps children try out different responses and behaviors, in a ‘safe’ pretend environment.
Socializing
Working on social skills is important for children as they get older.
Socializing is all about responding appropriately to other people’s cues, developing rapport and bonds.
It can be difficult for children to grasp social skills at a young age, and it is through practice that they develop a better understanding of interaction.
Pretend play provides a brilliant opportunity for them to develop social skills, within the unpressurised world of make believe.
The act of pretend play itself also creates social bonds between children, and forms the beginnings of finding common ground in order to get along with others.
Understanding Rules
Although the idea of pretend play is very much about free play and imaginations running wild, an unexpected side effect of make believe is that it usually involves rules.
When children are making up their fantasy play environment, it usually sparks conversations about the rules of play.
Everything from the exact superpower abilities they have, to what happens when someone plays on the tambourine, is up for grabs.
Children discuss, negotiate and agree on all the rules such as this in order to continue the make believe scenario.
This is often a first introduction to children about why rules in different contexts are necessary, and the logical thinking that is needed to create them.
Reducing Screen Time
Many parents worry about their children getting too much screen time in the form of television, tablets and mobile devices.
While screen time can bring benefits, and also help to stimulate an interest in make believe too, it is always good for children to have plenty of opportunities to play in the real world.
Pretend play is something that can keep children entertained for hours, making it one of the truly engaging alternatives to screens.
Supporting a child’s interest in the real world is important and beneficial to their overall development.
Playing Out Reality
More often than not, the choice of pretend play scenario that a child engages in reflects what is currently on their mind.
Children can struggle to find the words to articulate what they are thinking about, but they are better able to enact it in a particular situation.
This can help them to process and better understand what they are thinking and feeling, without feeling overwhelmed at the thought of trying to explain it to a parent.
This makes pretend play useful for parents too, as they can gain a better picture of what might be on their child’s mind, and find other ways of helping their child make sense of things too.
