Why Is Pretend Play Important in Kindergarten Kids?

Why Is Pretend Play Important in Kindergarten Kids?

little children playingLittle children learn by imagining, doing and copying. Notice how kids pick up inanimate objects and talk to them as if they’re a friend. Some also hold on to an object and start pretending that it’s a car or a pet dog. Children use objects to represent something by giving it motion and action.

In Tootgarook, children in kindergarten are allowed to explore their imaginative side through pretend play because it helps build essential skills in many developmental areas.

Emotional and Social Skills

Children who often engage in dramatic or pretend play are actively testing social and emotional life roles. Through cooperative play, they learn how to wait and take turns. They learn to share responsibility, as well as solve problems creatively. When kids pretend to be a different character, they experience how to be another person, and this teaches them the importance of developing empathy.

It’s normal for kindergarten kids to see the world from their own self-centred point of view. But as they mature and with cooperative pretend play, they start to understand how others feel. Kids also start to build their self-esteem when they learn that they can be anyone or anything by play pretending.

Language and Communication Skills

Parents who listen to their children as they participate in imaginary play with friends or toys will find it really amusing. Kids have a funny way of surprising parents with words and phrases that they never thought the kids knew. Parents will often hear their own words reflected in their kids as they play. Young children can perfectly imitate their parents and their teachers.

Pretend play helps kids understand the power of words and communication. Playing with others also allows kids to organise play and tell a story. With this, they learn to connect the written and spoken language, an essential skill that will soon help them learn how to read.

Logic and Thinking Skills

Pretend play allows children to learn how to solve various problems. Whether it is as simple as two kids wanting to do the same character or searching for the right parts to build a playhouse, they call upon essential cognitive thinking skills that they will soon use in all aspects of life.

Also, parents should not worry too much if their kids like roughhousing. This kind of play actually helps develop the frontal lobe, which is the part of the brain that controls behaviour. Within a monitored situation, this type of play can help children learn self-regulation skills and know when roughhousing is appropriate or not.

Nurtures the Imagination

pretend play

Imagination and creativity come naturally in children. It doesn’t take much for them to start imaginative and pretend play. Anything around them becomes an instant toy to substitute for anything that comes to mind. Encouraging pretend play will tap on this creativity, and this imagination can take kids far and wide.

Pretend play should be encouraged not only in schools but at home, too. It’s considered as a key to learning. Allowing children to be creative and to express themselves makes them more curious about the world and spurs their desire to learn everything there is to learn.

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