This is an excerpt from Toddler 411 by Denise Fields and Ari Brown, M.D.
Do you remember playing dress up or cops and robbers as a little kid? Of course, you do. Kids love to pretend, if given the opportunity. Why the heck do kids do this? And why is it important that we give them the opportunity?
Kids like to pretend because it gives them the chance to work out situations they experience in real life. This is part of normal development. And it's a red flag if a child doesn't pretend, imitate, or have "symbolic" play.
Psychologists think pretend play helps kids develop critical thinking skills and something called "self-regulation." A self-regulated child controls his behavior and emotion. Self-regulated kids not only do better in school, with lower dropout rates, but they succeed on all levels of development.
Some researches feel that the changes in the way children have played over the past 60 years has taken its toll on children's emotional and intellectual development. As kids play more with structured toys and less with just their imaginations, self-regulation has declined. Translation: lots of expensive "developmental" toys aren't necessarily a good thing.
When kids play independently and pretend, they make up their own rules and follow them. They talk to themselves about what they are doing. That inner voice equates to self-regulation. As a child gets older, he has more elaborate pretend play with other kids. He has to act out his role, remember what the other actors are doing, and improvise on the plot twists. That requires self-control.
As one developmental researcher, Dr. Adele Diamond, points out, we might have fewer kids diagnosed with ADHD if more kids learned self-regulation as toddlers and preschoolers.
The message: just let your kid keep on pretending. . . and give him the free time to do it.
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