Pretend play is one phase that comes in every child’s life. It is child’s everyday playtime activity. Many parents start worrying when they see their kids having imaginary friend or have a pretend play. If your kid is doing such thing then he/she is absolutely normal. Such play is an important part of a child’s brain development. They learn too many things through their imagination. In pretend play, they believe that there is some other person. They often use particular object like a doll to represent some person. Some children also have the tendency to pretend like adults; they act and dress like their mother or have a tea party with empty dishes or even explore dark closet cave. If your child does such stuffs then it is pretty obvious for him/her to do so at such an age.
Imaginary pals are helpful
- Imaginary friends give your child a chance to control things and environment the way they want. Real friends might destroy or take away their play things or disagree with the game which they want to play. In case of imaginary friends, such things never happen instead they become ideal companions.
- Imaginary friends help to build up child’s security sense and give them enough comfort. It offers your child a chance to show up their confidence and bravery. A child talks to his/her imaginary friend or even consoles them. By doing so, he tries to deal with his own fears.
- Imaginary friend offers all time companionship to your child.
Importance of imaginary pals
1. Social skills
When kids play, they start learning things on how to share or negotiate with other people. Other than this, children learn to understand things and manage their feelings by experiences. Children start learning things to consider the ways to reach, feel or think.
2. Language skills
In childhood, kids get lots of experiences. They improve their language skills when they communicate. For example, while explaining short story, it needs a sequence of events along with logical plots. At such point of time, the kids learn language skills.
3. Disciplinary skills
Children have the tendency to make rules for any game before they start playing. A girl child will keep her doll properly and sometimes clean up the mess, too. The girl child usually disciplines herself and also follows the rules.
Parents’ support
- Encourage your kids. Tell them about the importance of playing. Your kids will realize its importance if adults participate with them and pay proper attention to them while they play.
- Try to talk to your children and appreciate them about the game they play. Tell them, how much you are happy to see them playing. Join them so that you can improve more understanding with your kid.
- Make an environment where your kids can play comfortably. It is necessary for adults to give their kids toys and materials to explore.
- Parents should also keep an eye on the way their kids play. They should monitor their pretend play so that if their kids get stuck up somewhere they can pretend for new character roles, suggest them new ideas or offer new props.
- Children get the idea of their pretend play with the help of some interesting movies, books and field trips. If your kid is interested in particular topics like animal then take them to visit zoo or gift them a book where information on animals is available. This will help them to remember the experience which they can later reinforce their newly learned information.
Many parents worry about their child for having imaginary friends. They think that such imaginary friend can distract them from real friends. However, it is not true. Kids with imaginary friends rather have the ability to make good friendship with real people. Along with this they become good in vocabulary with good capacity of independent play. Thus, you can simply relax and help them in improving their imagination by joining them.
