Your toddler: the great pretender!

It's possible that pretend play is starting to become a regular part of your toddler's fun. As they whizz round the house, starting one thing and then another, you might see signs of new thoughts and ideas weaving into their play. It’s around now that your toddler’s understanding of the world is beginning to grow and expand, and they’re increasingly able to absorb the things they see and hear around them. 

For the most part of their lives, your toddler will have spent their time playing with you and other family members. 

It's from these experiences at home that your toddler gained much of their imaginative play ideas.  

They are now entering a stage where their overall development is helping them to branch out from using experiences at home to fuel play, here’s how: 

• Cognitive development. They are more able to think about things that aren't there and pretend one thing is another.  
• Social and emotional. You’ll notice they are more able to make decisions and choices about what they want to play. They may also be starting to realise that other people have ideas and thoughts, and want to use these in their play. 
• Language. Your toddler will use new words and phrases as they grow to understand their meanings and include them in their play. 
• Physical development. Both their fine and gross motor skills give them new ways to move and manipulate their imaginative play props.  

These developing skills intertwine with your toddler’s knowledge of the world and their own interests, and they may start to look to the wider community for new inspiration. 

When you are out together, your toddler will see people doing things that interest them. Their growing levels of attention means they’ll watch a little more intently, and they may ask you what others are doing. 

When they pay more attention to other people and their actions, it helps them act out and recreate different experiences. 

Science suggests that children learn actively when re-creating roles and situations in play.^[2,3] 

Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget, two psychologists, proposed that children actively participate in their learning and acquire knowledge through social interactions with others.^[2] They suggested that children seek to find ways to expand their play and look for ideas in different places to fuel their ideas. 

Other studies suggest that children look for alternative ways to play.^[3] They are active in that they make comparisons between what they are doing and what others are doing and by comparing how they play, act or do a task, they learn that there are various ways to do things.^[3] 

When they play actively, their ideas are based on information they’ve seen and heard.^[4]  

For example, if your toddler is in the park and sees another child being a tiger, they might try to become a tiger themselves. They may compare the way the other child moves and try to copy their actions.  

Or they may have seen a dragon in a cartoon and decide this is something they’d like to transform into. They are getting better at knowing they can use what they saw the dragon do and then bring life into their play with these new ideas. 

Playing like this is an effective way for them to make sense of the world around them.^[4]  

Even though your toddler is becoming more able to re-create roles, they’ll still need lots of support from you, family members and friends. 

Imaginative play needs time and experience to develop; it’s an evolving process that needs nurturing and guidance.^[4] When you see your toddler acting out something new, get yourself involved where possible and help them achieve what they are trying to. 

References: 

[1] M. Magennis. (2021) Early Childhood Development: Social Competencies in Young Children. Portobello Institute. 

[2] P. Pardjono. (2016). Active Learning: The Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, and Constructivist Theory Perspectives. Jurnal Ilmu Pendidikan. 

[3] S. Christie. (2021) Why play equals learning: Comparison as a learning mechanism in play. Tsinghua Laboratory for Brain and Intelligence, Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. 

[4] V. Fantasia., I. Nomikou. (2022) The Intersubjective Roots of Pretend Play. Rivista di Psicolinguistica Applicata Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics.