I have never been good at using my imagination. I am way too realistic. My husband, on the other hand, is amazing at coming up with things on the fly, spinning stories to be wild and crazy and getting the kids excited for adventure and fun. So I had to do a little research and exploring to figure it out myself. I wouldn’t say studying it has increased my imagination, but now I know what to work on.
Imaginative play is all about make believe. It allows someone to pretend and form their own rules for what is happening in a situation. A towel can become a magic carpet, a dress can become a princess gown, a cup can become a canteen on a big hike across the living room. Imaginative play lets us test boundaries, helps us figure out how we can function in the world and gain a deeper understanding of society.
Imaginative play or dramatic play helps our children make a leap in understanding. If a rope can be a snake then maybe a line on paper can be a letter or number. Your children can pretend to be anything they want, expand their imaginations and have fun doing it.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may get a commission if you make a purchase. No pressure to buy anything, just a suggestion for something we love. I love that you’re here thanks for reading.
What are the stages of imaginative play?
As your child grows their development increases and imagination grows. Here are some stages you can expect to see in your child as they age.
- Around 18 and 24 months toddlers start playing with everyday objects. They act out what they see others doing and mimic it. My toddler will grab a play phone and bring it to his ear and the babble away pretending he is on the phone. We never taught him to use the phone, but he sees us doing it and copies. My toddler will also walk around the room turning all the lights on and off as I would. He will open and shut doors and the sliding glass door for us, for him or for the dog.
- Around 24 months toddlers can start to replace items they need for play with other items. If they need a towel they may grab a blanket. If they are playing dolls and need a car they may find a substitute with a train or truck. These are examples of symbolic play. They are finding something in the home that symbolize or can be a substitute for a prop in play. Your child may also play with dolls or stuffed animals and pretend they are real babies or animals, feeding, changing diapers and making them nap. Your child may also pretend to do various actions like flying, sleeping, driving a car or riding a horse.
- Between age 2 and 3 toddlers will start to increase symbolic thinking and get more complex if needed. They may use items that are not as obvious a substitute. For example my daughter often uses a tin lunch pail as a car for her Barbies she may use a basket or our napkin holder if a tin box isn’t available. Even though she has a Barbie car, a substitute allows her to use her imagination. As your child’s imagination gets more elaborate they will get more creative making items they need out of items they have on hand.
- By 3 years old a child’s imaginative play is well underway. This is when children love to have lemonade stands, play house, have tea parties, car races and pretend all the dinosaurs spending the day at the watering hole. They love to play and come up with all sorts ways to do it. Let them explore and be sure to join in from time to time to see how creative they can be.
- At age 4, your child’s play time will become more elaborate. The Princess will need saving and her prince will fall into all sorts of trouble doing so. The Dinosaurs will need to fight and battle and the super heros will fulfill a mission. Plot lines are forming, multiple characters are in play and they may even change settings to the car or bedroom if needed. This is when my husbands creativity comes in and makes him amazing to play with. He can sit right down on the floor and play for hours.
How do you encourage imaginative play?
As you see your child using their imagination and being creative it will be natural for you to want to encourage it. I love seeing my kids being creative and playing make believe. Encouraging them can be as simple as giving them a creative idea and helping set the scene or as complicated as buying props and costumes and building a setting with household materials.
Kid versions of everyday adult things like a phone, remote control, mini- kitchen, toy car and keys tend to be popular toys with toddlers because they can role play and pretend to be mommy and daddy. Dolls, princess dress up clothes, career dress up clothes and action figures are also great for role play because your child will become the actor and be encouraged socially.
You can click the links above to check out some items we love to play with. But don’t overlook other awesome items you may have lying around your home. For example a cardboard box, packing bubble wrap, empty paper towel rolls or older clothes that can be used for something new. When we get a large box from Amazon we love to let the kids create something new with it. A house, a car, rocket ship or boat. Give them a box of markers or crayons and let them decorate it as well. Grab a blanket and wear it as a cape or lay it on the ground and pretend it is the ocean. Recycle an empty paper towel roll to make a wand, binoculars or microphone. Let your child lead the way when it comes to imaginative play and let them come up with creative ideas for items around the house. I bet you will be surprised.
Another huge way to encourage imagination is by reading. Reading is huge for little minds. Reading introduces new stories and plot lines to your children that can fuel their imagination further. Reading is also a great activity to bring you closer to your child. Grab a few fun books and snuggle up on the couch and read together. Encourage their imagination by talking about the setting and the characters. How can you recreate the setting at your home? How can you act out the characters role and play like the charter would? Remember I mentioned I don’t have a huge imagination… but I read a ton and I use the stories I have read to help me be creative with my children all the time.
How does imaginative play benefit a child?
Imaginative play, role play, pretend play, make believe, they are all interchangeable names. I can imagine that our best inventors were amazing at pretending when they were young. Our best actors were probably always role playing as children. Our favorite authors and artists can make believe so well they create stories and music and paintings for the rest of us to enjoy. Here is a list of other ways imaginative play helps your child develop. Which ones do you think are most important?
- Develop confidence
- Promote a healthy self-esteem
- Help encourage cooperation with others and build teamwork skills
- Develop communication and language skills
- Grow friendships and ways of developing friendships
- Express individuality and personality
- Test real life situations in a controlled environment
- Grow imagination
- Aid in developing decision making skills
These are all things I hope my children can work on often. I am even working on them as I play with them. I love that learning and developing can come through playing anywhere with anything.
What are imaginative activities?
We have discussed all the ways imaginative play can help your children. Now how can we get going and start playing?? Here are some fun ideas.
- Play house and become the actors. My daughter loves to play house and of course she is always mommy. If your child is playing solo encourage them to use dolls or stuffed animals to play house. They already know most home relationships and this type of play will give them a chance to make pretend rules and have the responsibility of a parent. I love to see my daughter play house to see what rules she keeps similar to our home life and what she comes up with on his own.
- Play chef or pretend cook. This can be done with a play kitchen or just items from your own kitchen. Use empty food boxes or clean containers and dishes. See what meal ideas they come up with on their own and how often they “make” some of their favorites from their diet. I use this type of play to see what foods they really love and listen to the interactions they have to food when they know they are free to act out any response.
- Have a dress up party with play clothes or an assortment of clothing from the closet. Encourage dressing for characters and playing the characters out. Pretend it’s a different season or pretend to be someone else in the family and dress accordingly. Then change clothes and be someone else.
- Build forts with blankets and sheets on couches and chairs. Encourage your child to come up with a design and where they want blankets placed. Help them reinforce the blankets so they can be played under without falling down. Use colorful blankets and sheets and don’t forget to lay down pillows and blankets inside. Grab a few toys and play or read inside the fort. Build your fort next to a window and watch outside for a while. When my sister and I were young we often tried to build a fort around the TV so we could watch from inside!
- Color castles or vehicles and other objects onto cardboard boxes and then play around the room in them. There is a joke about how parents spend tons of money on toys and then often times the kid ends up playing with the packaging. Well that’s because the packaging can be a blank slate and allows the child to get creative! Encourage creativity with a box of markers and see what your child creates.
- Read books and then expand what they read into play. You can print out characters from google images, tape them to a stuffed animal and play around the room. If you already have toys that are represented in a book have your child act out the scenes as you read to them.
- Encourage your child to act out poems, songs and stories. As they act they will learn sequencing of the story, experience dialogue and how characters are developed. Encourage them to come up with their own stories as well and use siblings and friends as fellow actors. Watch to see which children become the directors as well. A lot of nursery rhymes tell a story, for example Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill and Little Miss Muffet. Act out these songs as you sing and repeat as often as you like.
- Read different versions of a story and compare and contrast them. There are multiple versions of fairy tales and nursery rhymes out there that are just a bit different. See how many differences and similarities your child can think of. When you are done have them create their own version with different possibilities in mind.
- Encourage your child to create games of their own. Some children love to play games and make them up for the whole family to play. Encourage this creativity, it make some time to develop new games and a they may want to tweak rules and items as they play and learn what works and what doesn’t. I have a cousin who designed his own board games, pieces and spinners as a child. He loved explaining the rules and watching the games play out.
- Re-create social interactions and problems you have experienced or witnessed together in the past and allow your child to use their imagination to solve them. This is a great way to encourage social skills and see how they interpreted a situation. I would also give a few options to show that real life problems can be solved multiple ways.
My hope is that if you struggle with imagination that this post helps you have a few new ideas. I have learned a lot thorough play and watching my children play over the years and I know you will too. The most important thing is to allow creativity in your children and introduce them to new ways of developing it.