Last Friday, I went down to London to attend Maynards Discovery Patch event in London Zoo to learn about developing children’s imagination and met child psychologist Dr Amanda Gummer and the team of Imagination Ambassadors.

Thanks to Dr Gummer for sharing her top tips to promote an active imagination:

• Not always giving children the answers to everything they ask, instead, it is beneficial for children to try and think about their own answers, so parents should feel free to enable this to happen.
• Spark a child’s imagination with joint story time – the parent can start a story then it’s up to the child to continue it.
• Using imaginative language. Phrases such as ‘I wonder what’ or ‘imagine if’ can help children think more imaginatively and incorporate hypothetical or fantasy ideas into their everyday lives, helping them to imagine what it might feel like to be in a certain situation and empathise.