What is your toddler learning when they pretend with you?

When your child begins to pretend not only does this give you new things to do when you play together, it also provides fantastic opportunities for their development. Your toddler won’t be imagining fire-breathing dragons or superheroes yet, but they are beginning to recreate familiar situations. So, why is this beneficial? 

When you pretend with your toddler they learn to notice social cues 

Your toddler needs to understand when you’re pretending and when you aren’t. If they don’t, it could lead to some confusion, can they use the banana as a phone or is it something to eat?^[1] 

They will learn to spot that you smile a bit more or make eye contact more often when you are pretending. As well as helping to avoid confusion (so your toddler won’t actually try to ring someone on a banana!) this will help them learn about how people show when they’re pretending.  

Pretending helps your toddler understand that we can pretend one thing is another  

When you pretend with your toddler you help them to see that an object can represent something else. You can pretend together that the blocks are ‘dinner’ but the blocks themselves don’t change.  

Some scientists think that this shared pretending supports children’s social development, and particularly the development of theory of mind – which is the understanding that other people have different ideas, thoughts and points of view.^[1] 

Pretend play continues to be an area for research 

Some studies have suggested that pretend play helps to reduce emotional stress; recently, scientists have tested this idea. They didn’t find a greater reduction in stress response in children who’d played following watching a video that caused an emotional reaction, than those who coloured a picture or were read to – which suggests more research is needed.^[1] 

Some studies have found that pretending is linked to developing executive functions (the cognitive processes and mental skills that help us plan, monitor and successfully carry out certain goals), so children who pretend more often are better able to control their responses. Researchers are working on understanding more about this link.^[1] 

We think pretend play is amazing, both for all the benefits it might bring and because it’s fun. As you follow your toddler’s journey through the app you will see how their play continues to develop.  

Reference: 

[1] Lillard, A.S. (2017). Why do the children (pretend) play? Trends in Cognitive Science, 21(11), 826-834.