It has already been proven that children learn through play and role playing is an important part of a child’s early development. It can be interpreted in so many ways but essentially, it’s a type of play that allows children to have fun while learning. It stimulates a child’s imagination and encourages children to be creative with their toys. This is one of the reasons why picking the right toys that can maximise our children’s development.
Children can enjoy the benefits of role playing while playing alone or with others. They can play their fairy toys at home with their friend or at school. Different settings and environments encourage different kinds of role-playing. It’s valuable to let our children run wild with their imagination and sit back and observe them from afar.
Besides being fun and engaging, imaginative play sets your children up for better things in the future. Using their imagination while playing expands their creativity and teaches them foundational skills they need to perform well academically at school. Through imaginative play, they can act out different scenarios and see things in different perspectives.
Let’s take a closer look at the reasons why you should let your child play with fairy toys.
Creativity & Imagination
Fairy toys are good for pretend play and pretend play produces smart kids. Several studies link pretend play to a child’s cognitive ability, imagination and creativity. Engaging in make-believe facilitates learning and development naturally. It allows a safe environment for children to explore different ideas, exercise their brains by using their imagination and encourages them to express themselves more freely. This is particularly important in developing solid problem-solving skills. Also, having a sound imaginative and creative mind will definitely help our children plan ahead, understand other people’s point of view and enjoy various forms of media when they grow older.
Communication & Language
You would be amazed to see how quickly children pick up new words be it at school during class or at home during your bedtime storytelling. Role playing or pretend play facilitates a risk-free play environment for them to try out new words and lets children experience the power of language. By learning and using new words, it expands their vocabulary and they are more confident when communicating with others.
If they are confident with their communication and language skills, they are more likely to convey a message and express themselves effectively by choosing their words carefully and appropriately. They are also more likely to listen carefully to what is being said. This set of skills help children pick up reading and writing quickly when they start going to school.
Social & Emotional Skills
During role playing kids place themselves in a play setup that encourages them to interact with others. The ability to sympathise and understand certain emotional situations is called empathy and children learn about it through play. Most of the time kids will play a role of a person or character they would like to be. This makes it easier for children to understand things and reasons why certain characters do what they have to do. As they experience a wide range of emotions, children are able to control their emotions and how they feel and react to certain situations.
Role playing also helps your children learn to resolve any conflicts and problems that may occur when they play with friends. They’ll learn about teamwork through cooperation, coordination, collaboration and learn how to compromise. For instance, they will need to communicate with their friends who will play as fairies and who will play evil witches. These skills are valuable even later in life because they will be able to handle their own anxieties and fears.
Physical Skills
Playing with fairy toys encourages children to become more mobile. When children run around the house holding their favourite fairy toys and trying to save their fantasy land, they’re developing a wide range of physical skills like gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, balance, upper body strength and body coordination.
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