Title: Why Imaginative Play for Children Is So Important
Headings: Why Imaginative Play for Children Is So Important
Why Imaginative Play for Children Is So Important
Children and Imaginative Play
Why is Imaginative Play Important?
How Can You Encourage Imaginative Play?
#1. Provide them with a few essential props
#2. Encourage creativity
#3. Encourage reading and making up stories
#5. Use outside opportunities to capture imagination
About the Author: Jill Holtz
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Content: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution”. So, why is imaginative play so central to a child’s cognitive and social development, and what can you do to encourage it? Why is Imaginative Play Important? One of the reasons imagination is so important is that it helps children to understand the world around them. Imaginative play allows children to express themselves verbally and physically, act, react and interact, and try out different roles and scenarios within safe boundaries of their own making. Imaginative role play – for example, playing a ‘post office game’ whereby children use stationery, furniture and other props to recreate an imaginary post office – allows children to make up addresses, stamp, weigh and measure pretend parcels, deliver packages to far-flung countries and script imaginary conversations with various characters. Role play like this is so beneficial to a child’s development because it helps them to process what they’ve seen and experienced in the world so far. It allows them to push the boundaries further and imagine what the consequences of doing things differently might be – all in a way that’s safe, controlled and completely dictated by the limits of their imagination. Also, imaginative play is so important because it enables social and emotional development, helping children to contemplate a variety of confrontations and resolutions.