We all love to play, right? Make-believe play, aka ‘Imaginative play’ or ‘Pretend play’ forms an essential part of a child’s development. Not only does it encourage imagination, creativity, social and emotional development but it also improves language and communication skills! Pretend play is imperative to your child’s learning, and to developing thinking skills and problem-solving abilities. Pretend play is as developmentally necessary as other pursuits such as scheduled activities (music practice, dance practice, chores, etc.)

Here are some ways to encourage pretend play!

Create stories:

Help your child to create, or re-create stories. Help them to expand their story and thinking skills by asking questions like “What do you think happened next?” and “What if the cat got stuck in the tree?”

Use dolls and stuffed animals:

Through imaginative play, children easily ascribe feelings and ideas to these ‘people’ and ‘animals’ and often use them to express, explore and work out their own ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Prop boxes:

‘Prop boxes’ are themed boxes with dramatic play materials in them. Examples include a post office, a grocery store, a dentist, a doctor, a coffee shop, etc. See what your child does with the prop boxes, and engage in role play with them if they are having trouble creating their own pretend play situations. It can sometimes be a good idea to leave the prop box in the play room or living room for a few days. This allows your child to fully explore and enhances their creative play!

Dress up:
Use homemade materials or costumes to encourage your child to be the princess of the castle, a cowboy, an astronaut, or their favorite action heroes.

Choose the right toys:

Toys such as play kitchens, doll houses, princess castles, tea sets, dolls, action heroes, train sets, farm sets, toy cash registers, shopping trollies, pretend mobile phones, keys and dress up clothes are the best type of toys to encourage pretend and imaginative play!

As always, I’d love to hear from you, so get in touch at hannah@elyhq.com. For more insights, go to www.elyhq.com and follow us on Instagram @earlylanguageyears