Role play has been massively overlooked in children's’ play and it is when children get into the role that they are able to experience all the different channels that imagination and skills it brings. The value that role play brings to children's’ minds has exponential benefits to the little one’s development. There is a multitude of benefits but read on to find out the main ones…
Understanding of the world
Children are exposed to new life situations and new places on a daily basis, it ignites their curiosity to the world around them. In order for them to make sense of it all, they use what they’ve observed, in their play – pretend play to be exact. By experimenting on how to care for their sick pet at the vet, or changing tyres for their car or even buying groceries for a dinner party, they are investigating and exploring all the time. Once children are placed in an environment where it captivates them, all they’ll want to do is find out more about the world they live in. Role play enables children to learn through creative play in a completely safe environment.
Social Skills, Language and communication
You will observe lots of interaction in Role2play, whether it’d be at the supermarket, medical centre or at the garage, you will hear your children communicating with each other, when it comes to taking turns or the vocabulary they are trialling out in their new role. Learning to listen to ideas from others as well as sharing thoughts of their own. What’s more is that whilst they are pretending, they somehow lose their inhibitions and become more confident also because they are merely ‘acting’ and be more empathetic in seeing things from other people’s perspectives.
By engaging your children in role play, they are revealing so many different layers of learning which they aren’t even aware of. For an early years educator, we feel this is the perfect type of play, where children are fully immersed and captivated in their own learning. These are fundamental skills that children would need to develop as they enter into pre-school ages, building up their confidence in unimaginable ways. This type of play is invaluable and can’t be overlooked, you’ll be surprised too, when observing your child you will be amazed at what your child already knows and how proficient they can get by in everyday life.
Confidence Building and Empathy
As soon as children step into Role2Play, it will give them the confidence to explore what they already know about the world but also gives them confidence into discovering new experiences. All this in a safe environment, where everyone in Role2Play is busy with jobs to carry out. To make sense of real-life scenarios, they are thinking about how they would deal with situations in someone else’s shoes, by using empathy, quite a sophisticated characteristic.
Imagination
How amazing it is that children have such a valuable skill and they are able to use it at their disposal, given an opportunity to do so. We believe at Role2Play, they are able to freely imagine what role they would like to be that day. Why can’t a firefighter be doing their weekly grocery shopping, after saving a cat from a tree? Or a construction worker suddenly had to fix a wall at the school, whilst keeping school children safe in their classrooms? Children have imagination in abundance, they are given lots of chances to be as inventive and creative as they like.
