Pretend Playing Is A Boost To Cognitive Development

Nov, 2022 - By SMI

A recent research conducted explains the benefits of pretend playing on a child’s brain and proposes that parents must add this type of activity at their early age.

Children are often innovative about their playing methods. They usually don’t need a teacher to teach them a new game, they develop it themselves. It is proved that the games or playing methods kids follow inn their childhood are very much responsible for their mental growth into their teenage.

Pretend playing is one of these playing methods in which a child engages in pretending some social or professional roles in life. For example being a doctor or becoming a housewife and cooking food. It is a combination of various activities such as acting, imagining, creating something, communicating etc.

A recent research done by University of Portsmouth and Lund University, Sweden establishes a connection between pretend play and developmental progress of a child. The research puts forward significance and benefits of pretend playing. In this type of play child boosts its imagining power. Often children use different props which denote something else for example a stick as a sword etc.
Social and communications skills of the child also get help through pretend playing. They learn to co-operate with each other, carry responsibilities and respond positively towards feelings of other people.

Children develop cognitive thinking which may be helpful to them in their future life. Also through these games problem solving abilities are developed. The research says pretend playing gives kids better understanding of science thus practically clearing concepts they learn in school.

This research has also proposed that pretend playing should be considered as interpersonal feature of cognitive development and introduced to the child at very early age to enhance its benefits.