P2
Imaginative play helps to develop a child’s all-round development especially their social, emotional and cultural development. The benefits of imaginative play in these areas are that the children can express themselves through their imaginative play sessions.
Imaginative play helps to develop a child’s emotional development as they will be able to express their feelings throughout their play. This is particularly beneficial for children who are having problems at home as they sometimes act out what is happening at home through their play and it can help them. This is why the adult’s role in imaginative play is very important as if the child is acting out anything that might be happening to them at home, the adult needs to pick up on what they are doing and act appropriately. No matter what type of play the child is participating in whether it’s superhero play or domestic play where the child is playing a game of mothers and babies or acting out a scene where they are cooking in the kitchen the children will be developing their emotional development as they will be experiencing scenarios that they haven’t experienced before. During imaginative play children will be developing skills during different areas these could be developing empathy and exercising feelings. Imaginative play can be very beneficial to a child’s emotional development as they will develop things that they can use in later life and this is why it is so important to a child’s development.
Imaginative play will be beneficial for a child’s social development as whilst they are taking part in different imaginary play scenarios they will be socialising with the other children involved in their play. Whilst in my setting, I noticed that children who were involved in imaginative play often played in groups rather than on their own, I found it very rare for a child to be taking part in imaginative play on their own. An important part of social development