Pretend Play and Language Development
“Around 24-30 months, children start to integrate nonliteral themes into social play, marking the emergence of social pretend play.”1 Speech therapists use pretend play frequently to address many concepts in therapy sessions. It has a number of benefits for language development in children. So, let’s explore some key factors.
Expanding Vocabulary with Pretend Play
Pretend play is a great way to expand vocabulary due to minimal limitations of what is happening in the current environment. Children are exposed to new ideas and things that they may not be normally exposed to in their daily lives. Vocabulary surrounding creative places, objects, people, and feelings can be experienced.
Building Conversational Skills and Attention
“From 15 to 24 months, children progress from exchanging simple social behaviors (e.g. smiles) to playing with toys in an interactive manner, with each child contributing to the play. This social play is reality based, with toys and objects used for their intended functions.”1 Integration of nonliteral themes occurs around 24-30 months. This occurrence allows a child to use their expanded vocabulary and new understanding that, for example, a hairbrush can represent a phone, creating the desire to converse with peers of these new findings. Conversational exchange facilitates the skill of attending to a peer and an object for an extended period of time.
Understanding Different Perspectives
Imaginative play, especially role-playing activities, build and nurture the ability to understand the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others. Also, “Certain partners may act in ways that foster success and sophistication in social pretend play.”1
Improve Problem Solving Skills Using Pretend Play
Pretend play can take so many different forms and outcomes can consistently change. It is an important way for children to learn about if/then or hypothetical scenarios.
There are many toys and activities that promote this activity, such as dress up clothes, role playing, puppets, and play food/kitchen. For more ideas on how to support creative play at home, check out Inspire My Play and Busy Toddler. However, if you feel like your child struggles with their play skills, check out Building Play Skills for Healthy Children and Families.
References
- Howes, C. (1987). Social competence with peers in young children: Developmental sequences. Developmental Review, 7,252–272
- DeKroon, D. M., Kyte, C. S., & Johnson, C. J. (2002). Partner influences on the social pretend play of children with language impairments. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 33(4), 253–267. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2002/021)