THE VALUE OF IMAGINATION

Imaginative play includes the whole body and often combines active play like running, jumping, skipping and crawling with a range of fine motor skills.  It encourages children to pursue new experiences while building their resilience.

Children engaging in regular imaginative play express more emotional engagement, thoughtfulness and understanding, with less negative emotional expression such as selfishness and anger. 

Storytelling is one of the most creative tools we have as human beings.  In imaginative play, children build stories around characters they become, extending the plot they have created together and problem solving along the way. They use objects around them and turn them into something else entirely.  Blankets and chairs can become a castle, rocks can represent a delicious feast, stepping stones can be a bridge across crocodile infested waters.

Cooperation, negotiation and dispute resolution are all regular parts of imaginative play – especially when there’s a lot of children involved!  Acting out scenarios helps children learn problem-solving skills as they solve issues that arise, either real or imagined as part of their pretend play story.

Through imaginative play, children are usually pretending to be someone or something different from who they are.  In doing this they choose different words and phrases to communicate with each other, often imitating phrases from their favourite books, TV shows or adults!  This use of language helps build vocabulary and understanding of the principles that build a story – a skill that also helps with reading.