Back to Preschool: The Benefits of #PretendPlay…..PLUS Fancy Nancy Costume Giveaway Ends 10/16

 I received Great Pretenders Fairy Blossom Princess dress to try with my 5-year-old in exchange for this post and giveaway.  All opinions expressed here are honest and my own.

Ahhh, pretend play.  It seems like yesterday I was trying on my mom’s shoes, dresses, and jewelry, and I would walk around the house pretending to be a mom, a princess, etc.  Pretty much anything girly I could think of.  Remember those days of pretend play?

Now I am sitting back watching my little girls do the exact same thing.  I am learning to cherish these moments every chance I get as they are growing very quickly, sniff sniff!

Did you know that there are benefits to pretend play?  For boys and girls!  When I studied early childhood in college, we actually learned about the benefits of pretend play.  It’s an actual learning experience, an important one! How so?

Children learn by imagining and doing. The process of pretending builds skills in many essential developmental areas. Dress-up play is vital to a child’s development. According to licensed child psychologist Dr. Laurie Zelinger, “It fosters the imaginative processes, and allows for play without rules or script. Dress up allows for experimentation, role play and fantasy.“

Major benefits include:

1. Social and Emotional Skills

Dress up allows for experimenting with the social and emotional roles of life. Through cooperative play, children learn societal rules such as how to take turns, share responsibility, and creatively problem-solve. Character play means that the child is “walking in someone else’s shoes” and it encourages teamwork along with an interest in peers. The child also learns to negotiate which helps teach the important moral development skill of empathy. Since children see the world form their own point of view, cooperative play helps them understand the feelings of others.

2. Language Skills

When children engage in pretend play, you will hear words and phrases you never thought they knew. Pretend play requires children to invent and tell stories and since almost all children narrate their pretend play experiences, they train their minds to transform ideas into words. Children usually mimic words and ideas from parents, teachers, daycare or what they hear on TV. This repetition builds vocabulary and helps kids visualize what they say, especially when adults offer feedback to help kids better understand the words they use. This also helps with grammar – they may not know the rules but they are training themselves to speak like adults. This also helps make the connection between spoken and written language — a skill that will later help them to read.

3. Self-Control

Young kids typically have little self-control. During pretend play, children have to take a role and play within those boundaries, especially when other kids are involved. Studies show that children control their impulses significantly better during pretend play than at other times. Did you ever wonder why parents often make up a game to get their children to eat their vegetables or finish chores? Transforming an unappealing task into a make-believe game is a popular trick among clever parents and educators.

4. Problem Solving Skills

Pretend play also provides your child with a variety of problems to solve. Whether it’s the logistics of sharing toys or a pretend problem the children are escaping from, the child calls upon important cognitive thinking skills that he will use in every aspect of his life, now and forever. Role playing games lead children to face situations that far exceed kids’ real-life experiences. Children work out confusing, scary, or new life issues. Through these role plays, children become more comfortable and prepared for life events in a safe way. Children often use pretend play to work out more personal challenging life events too, whether it is coping with an illness in the family, the absence of a parent or divorce, or a house fire. Although kids may not always act logically during tough pretend dilemmas, the very process of problem solving becomes habitual. By practicing problem solving in an artificial environment, kids are better prepared to think of creative solutions to their own real-life problems.

5. Self-esteem

By giving your child complete control in their pretend world and accepting them as a silly character, you are enhancing their self-esteem. While they use their own initiative to develop story lines, their creative imagination to expand stories and their own personality to choose a character they enjoy, you are enhancing their self-esteem by allowing them complete power in the world & enjoying it with them. Take for example superheroes. Considering the thrill children get out of pretending to be a grown-up, it’s no wonder that they’re also crazy about mimicking the most powerful version of adults: superheroes. Pretending to be Batman or Wonder Woman allows a toddler to feel brave and invincible, which helps them develop self-confidence. Similarly, all that running and leaping keeps them active and builds strength, balance, and coordination.

“ Confidence is brought about in children by the realization that they have the ability to be anybody they want in this life and accomplish anything they desire. Our goal at Great Pretenders is to help kids achieve that level of confidence and to start young. Surely pretend play has many benefits for child development but one of the main things is that it’s also FUN for parents and for children! It’s a great bonding experience, especially when you participate in your child’s make belief world” ~ Kate Muddiman, Creative Director, Great Pretenders

Great Pretenders is truly an amazing educational costume site that I highly recommend for toddlers and preschoolers.  As you can see in the pics above,  my 5-year-old adores her Fairy Blossom Dress (currently out of stock) costume.  You can find her running around flapping her fairy wings pretty much every day.  So cute.  She decided she wants to wear it to our church fall fest on the 31st! Love it!

I want to personally thank everyone at Great Pretenders for allowing my 5-year-old to try out one of your costumes.  It has been a pure joy!

In celebration of pretend play, Great Pretenders is giving away a Fancy Nancy costume (seen below) to one of our readers.  Please read the terms and conditions within the giveaway widget before entering. The giveaway ends 10/16! Thanks for entering our giveaway!

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