Why Is Role Play So Important For Kids?
We all know what fertile imaginations children have got. Both boys and girls are equally adept at creating elaborate situations out of virtually nothing. From castles to islands, and shops to hospitals, we’ve all seen kids create drama at playtime that comes right out of their own heads.
There is no doubt that role play is an important and regular part of growing up. As children, we see it as something fun. We certainly don’t realize at the time that we are building our personalities and our various skills as we do it.
One of the most important facets of role play is that children use it to act out situations that they see adults getting into in real life. For example, they may be too young to go into a shop and buy things, but they see their parents doing it all the time. They can then mirror this by role-playing and imagining that they are doing it themselves. As it goes, the skills that are learned from this are then carried forwards as they grow older and start to interact with more and more people.
Indeed, children are well versed at being creative all on their own, but is there anything that we can do as adults to help them on this exciting journey?
Firstly it’s a good idea to give them time and space to be creative. Make sure they have plenty of time with their friends on a regular basis. Perhaps you and the parents of their friends could take it in turns to invite the children back for tea in the evening after school, for example.
Another area worth thinking about is the toys they have available. While there is nothing quite like making tents out of old sheets and grabbing pencils and paper to be creative on, there are plenty of toys that are created for role-playing too.
One good example is the various dolls you can get, for boys as well as girls. There are a lot of famous name toys which fit into this category, such as Barbie and Action Man for example.
These are particularly good if young children are playing on their own since they can make up all kinds of situations with very little prompting from you!
Another wonderful example is dolls houses. Once the child has the basic house, they can add furniture and dolls to it as it develops, and they can act out all kinds of different situations in it as a result.
In short, role play can be achieved in a number of different ways. But there is no doubt that it has a huge effect on children of all ages as they grow and develop in the future.
About the Author: Carol James is a writer and senior editor. She has MA degree in social sciences and writes articles, reviews on the different actual subjects. So, if you have any questions regarding the writing, feel free to ask her and visit her company’s page EssayLab.
Disclosure: This is a featured post.
