Hellobee

A few months ago, Will started ‘calling us’ using anything that looked like a phone. A few weeks ago, he began telling stories to himself in the car, as if conversations were happening. He would tell his tiny Thomas the train to eat his oatmeal and they would clean up the toys together.

This has progressed to narrating and re-enacting ever more complicated, multi-step everyday situations – Will is mimicking questions we asked (“are you all ready?” “which shoes do you want?”),  preparing food for us in his questions and yesterday he told me to “play pretending and eat the banana.” We are officially entering the big stage of imaginative play!

According to child psychology (and this great article), there are several stages in the world of pretend.

• Around 1 yr/1.5 years old: Self-pretend, where little ones mimic one everyday action, maybe using props. This was Will’s first foray, through using a ‘phone’ to call someone.
• Around 1.5-2 years old: Simple pretend, where kids perform pretend with toys or other people. For Will, this looked like beginning to push his trains in circles while saying “chug chug choo choo” and offering his Mickey Mouse some milk.
• Around 2-3 years old: Multi-action pretend. Building on the single actions to multi-step pretend, often using props/toys and other people. These props don’t have to be the actual item – e.g., a stick might be a utensil. Will is moving into this phase rapidly – and I am drinking lots of ‘air’ – ahem, I mean ice cream soup from tiny pots and pans in his playroom.
• Around 2.5 – 3 years old: Unfamiliar pretend. This is when kiddos don’t have to be themselves during imaginative play, but they are pretending to be things they know – they could be a mama or a tiger, and they can use almost any object to represent something else, even if it doesn’t strongly resemble what they’re pretending it is. I am really looking forward to seeing how this manifests for Will – he loves making all the animal noises BUT he also LOVES trains. Will he be a bunny rabbit or a train conductor first?!
• Around 3 – 5 years old: Finally playing pretend with friends! The imagination is firing on all cylinders at this point, and kids can play together to create fantastical worlds of unreality and reality. Kings in a castle, martians on the moon, or students in a schoolroom – anything can happen!

One of the best ways for children to learn and grow is to let their imagination flow – and the art of playing pretend is a big part of that. Many resources (here, here and here) note the power of this kind of play, and note that we can encourage this kind of play in a few ways:

• Model imaginative play. Use a banana to make a phone call or a box to make a spaceship and see where kids take it.
• Allow for kids to engage with toys that look like real objects. This is where play kitchens, stuffed animals and the like really have an impact. Kids seeing smaller versions of things they know spark that pretend play.
• Just like in improv, go with it! If you’re kiddo tells you the floor is molten lava, you best be getting yourself standing on a stool!

What other ways do you encourage imaginative play in your youngster? At what stage is your kid/are your kids currently?