Pretend Play Is A Key Component In A Child's Cognitive Development (Research Paper Sample)

Pretend Play Is A Key Component In A Child’s Cognitive Development
Student’s Name
Institution
Pretend Play Is A Key Component In A Child’s Cognitive Development
Pretend play, also known as creative play commences when a child is 11 months old. There are two main types of pretend play: fantasy play and sociodramatic play. Children involve in fantasy play when they pretend to interact with their toys or animals and also creating plots for them, that is, planning what the toys should do at a particular time or place. On the other hand, sociodramatic play occurs when children try to imitate a story of a certain cartoon or movie. Many parents notice creative play when their child is 3 to 4 years old. When a child plays pretend play, he acts as if what he is imagining is real. For example, a child can put a string in a basin and pretend that he is fishing or he can play with a doll believing that the doll is alive. Many parents stop children from indulging in pretend play because they fear that this play will eventually make them fail to differentiate between reality and imagination. However, some parents and teachers trust that this play boosts a child's cognitive development. This essay argues that pretend play is very important for a child’s education because it boosts cognitive development.
First and foremost, pretend play causes the development of social skills in a child because many children pretend play with their friends. It, therefore, enables children to appreciate the social relationships that they form with their friends while playing (Worthington & Oers, 2016). Furthermore, even if a child is pretend playing alone, he still fosters his social skills because he has to imagine the presence of other people while playing. Moreover, pretend play also develops social skills because it enables a child to assume certain roles and to also know how to take turns when playing with other children. It also makes children empathetic when they assume the roles of their friends or parents. A child with good social skills can achieve outstanding performance in school because he will be able to discuss with his classmates and he will also feel free to ask a teacher to help whenever there is a problem. Without self-esteem, children cannot perform well academically. Furthermore, early childhood educators have also discovered that children who play with imaginary friends have high levels of creativity than those who do not. Lastly, many adults who had imaginary friends when they were young claim to be more innovative than those who did not have.
Furthermore, pretend play also increases a child’s problem-solving skills. For example, when playing the role of finding the right roof for an imagined house, the child has to use her problem-solving skills and imaginative skills to find the right roof. Researchers claim that playing these types of games enables a child to quickly develop his frontal lobe which is responsible for regulating an individual’s behaviour. Therefore, parents should not stop children from pretend playing because it reduces aggressive behaviour as it develops self-regulation skills (Worthington & Oers, 2016). Good behaviour is necessary for outstanding academic achievement because it ensures that a child follows all instructions that early childhood educators provide. It also ensures that a child develops stable relationships with other children because few children would like to befriend a child with bad behaviour.
Many teachers have revealed that most of the children who take part in pretend to play never hide their emotions, instead, they always display the emotions that they feel. Therefore, these children always have positive emotional expressiveness: they have less negative emotions such as anger and selfishness and teachers agree that they perform better on tests that measure a child’s emotional understanding. Therefore, pretend play increases children’s emotional growth which is essential for a child’s success in the learning process as he grows up.
Some educators encourage children to pretend play because they have realized that this game makes children to learn more information about the real world. For example, an educator can ask a child to pretend that a certain toy is a shark and it is very dangerous because it eats other fish. This game can help a 4-year-old child understand that sharks are dangerous and carnivorous animals.
Parents who listen to their children while pretend playing reveal that they hear their children saying some words they thought their children never knew. Sometimes, some parents claim that children use their words while pretend playing. Therefore, pretend helps children to comprehend language because, during the play, they try to imitate the words that their parents usually say. Pretend play helps a child to be skilled at organizing plays and telling narratives. It also enables children to realize the relationship between written and spoken language: this realization is important because it will help them to be good learners and readers (Conner et al.,2012). Lastly, studies have discovered that pretend playing enables children to be good at using adjectives and future tenses
Pretend play is more beneficial to children than real play activities because it requires children to have advanced communication and thinking skills. Pretend play enables children to learn how to negotiate, balance their thinking with that of other children, and they can also learn how to synthesize various pieces of information. All these skills are necessary for the learning process and even their future work. Furthermore, pretend play makes children be attentive and good observers (Romeo et al., 2015). Children who love creative playing like watching what adults do so that they assume their roles when playing a game. They are also attentive when watching movies because they would like to act the movie after it is over. A child who plays pretends play encourages the development of his memory because he will always recall something before he plays. For example, when a child imagines that he is a hero in a certain movie, he will have to remember the movie while pretend playing. Therefore, children who pretend play obviously achieve outstanding performance because they can easily remember what educators teach them.
Pretend playing also improves a child’s physical skills because when assuming roles of a certain person, children will have to behave like that person. For example, if they are pretending to be a superhero, they put on the superhero’s costume and start jumping around as if they are the actual superheroes. Sometimes, children might pretend to be truck drivers by moving their toy cars hence improving their hand coordination skills.
Studies reveal that parents who regularly teach their children about nature and other worldly issues, or those who read storybooks for their children before they sleep, encourage pretend play because the child will imagine himself in his parents’ stories. Furthermore, schools which encourage pretend play have the most imaginative and inquisitive students. Today, some early childhood educators are using pretend plays to teach students: this teaching style makes children to easily remember what they have been taught in class.
Scholars who argue against pretend play reveal that it leads to loneliness, depression, and anxiety especially if the child loves playing alone (Meacham et al.,2014). These people fear that this game can make a child to be a very anti-social child when he grows up. This argument is true because pretend play might make a child think that he has friends but he doesn't. Parents can deal with this problem by ensuring that their children never play alone. They must, therefore, encourage their children to pretend play with their friends. Furthermore, it also difficult for a child to believe that his imaginary friends are real; this problem can only occur on children with a mental disorder. Besides this, children who have imaginary friends tend to leave this ‘friends’ when they grow up.
Some parents stop their children from pretend playing because they fear that these children might assume the roles of bad people. This argument might be true because, at a young age, children might fail to differentiate the difference between bad and good actions. However, parents can stop their children from imitating bad people by making sure they are not exposed to violent movies, people, and environments.
Another reason why some parents are against their children pretend playing is that it can make children to avoid rea...