The Need for Pretend Play in Child Development, Essay Example

According to the article by Kaufman concerning the importance of children play in the course off their development, physical play is not the only beneficial type of play that is suitable for the development of the child. Manipulation of the ideas as well as emotions is equally important for the social as well as cognitive development of the child. This type of play is imaginative and it has been a focus of research with significant values being attributed to the child’s normal development. Through systematic research, scientists and psychologists have identified the benefits that are associated with the engagement of the child in the pretend games. The benefits include cognitive benefits that include a high level of language usage in terms of enhanced skills in adjectives, subjunctives as well as future tense. Imaginative play has also been linked to the idea of the ‘theory of mind’ which is a type of awareness that the thoughts of an individual are different from others and a perspective that every individual has capabilities based on imaginative play.

A variety of effective as well as cognitive processes have been successfully been linked to pretend play through research. Pretend play facilitates for effective expression of negative as well as positive feelings coupled with the aptitude of integration of emotion to cognition. The make-believe type of games plays a crucial role in self-regulation such as reduction in aggression, civility, empathy as well as delayed gratification. The use of toys by the children in representation of people or scenarios leads to the representation of diverse perspectives. These give the children an opportunity for developing their social skills which include solving of problems, communication as well as empathy.

Introduction of pretend play among children is beneficial in improving the capacity of the child in cognitive flexibility leading to high creativity skills. Exposure to imaginative plays at early stages of development in child leads to high echelons of creative performance in later years of the child development. Among the creative individual with amazing records such as Nobel  prize winners as well as grant awardees for being genius were actively involved in games at their early childhood. Some environments in the upbringing of children play a crucial role in the promotion of frequent as well as early imaginative play. Some parents engage their children regularly in explanation of features associated with nature as well as other critical social issues while others tell stories to their children at bed time. These are crucial activities that have an impact in fostering pretend play among the children. Some school atmosphere as well as curriculum also encourages pretend play and these too are responsible for the promotion of enhanced curiosity as well as imaginativeness among the children. Educators have actually embraced the merits of pretend play in teaching reading as well as mathematics.

It is postulated that the notion pretend play time that is built in the regular school day may be accepted ss an ordinary tradition because it allows coming together of the children and offer an opportunity for exploration of ideas, perspectives as well as emotions. This promotes the cognitive development of the children.