The importance of role play

Role play is a big part of being a kid – but there’s a lot more to it than just donning a firefighter’s hat and pretending to be the hero. Here are six valuable skills your child learns through role play.

Every child loves to play make believe. But more than a just a game, role play is also super important in a child’s emotional, social and physical development. Imaginative play allows kids to get into character and act out real roles like driving and shopping which lets them learn about real-life situations at their own pace.

Venues like Little Street in Surrey, Kent and Sussex are brilliant for sparking the imaginations of little ones and help them experience the wonders of the world via carefully designed themed rooms – all scaled down to their own size.

Here are the six key skills your child will develop while they’re stepping into the roles of police officer, doctor, vet, postman, builder, shopkeeper and mummy and daddy!

Confidence

By encouraging social interaction and problem solving, role play also helps children to gain confidence. There’s a sense of freedom in the knowledge that kids can be anything by pretending – and this is a safe and secure way to experiment, test boundaries and build confidence.

Communication

Kids are amazing at picking up words and language from the people around them, and by putting themselves into a different scenarios they get to explore their own use of language, and understand the power of words.

Physical development

Role play puts kids into many different situations and gets them running, jumping, crawling and climbing – which is all good for their physical development. They’ll also get lots of experience practising their fine motor skills – changing a baby doll’s outfit playing mum, plaiting hair as a hairdresser, using coins when they’re shopping.

Creativity and imagination

By absorbing themselves in a pretend game, children are given the opportunity to use their imagination and to think creatively. Wasn’t it Albert Einstein who said: Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will get you everywhere!? And that’s exactly the beauty of it – when kids are involved in imaginative role play they can be anyone and anywhere!

Problem solving skills

The the act of pretending means children have to decide who they want to to be and how they’re going to play the role. They’ll also learn how to negotiate the rules of the game with other children.

Social and emotional development

By pretending to take on different roles, kids are basically trying out different roles in life and through this they’ll experience different feelings – both positive and negative. They’ll learn how these emotions feel and how to handle them positively.

Little Street is in Frimley and West Byfleet in Surrey, Horsham and Chichester in Sussex, and Maidstone in Kent. And in July 2019, Little Street will open in Sevenoaks in Kent.

little-street.co.uk

M
Be the first to comment
Share this story: