Role-Playing in Child Development
Playing is a key component in the learning process for virtually all of the children. There are various ways in which children play, but one of the most important is role-playing. This involves a child engaging in an activity during which he or she pretends to be another person.
Experts on child development believe that role-playing can increase the connections in children's brains that help them learn. Language skills are some of the most important aspects of learning. When children role-play, they must work out steps that need to be taken to complete a task, and create plans to act out a story. These activities enable children to develop their oral language skills. They become able to organize others and to give directions.
Children's social skills can also be developed. When engaged in group activities, children have different roles. Some are leaders while others are followers. At times, the children will disagree, so they must learn to negotiate and compromise with one another, and they must learn to apologize when they have strong arguments or disagreements as well. Children further learn about cooperation and sharing and, hopefully, begin to understand things from another person's point of view.
Besides helping children learn some kinds of skills, role-playing fosters children's imaginations and can therefore assume a number of forms. For example, boys may pretend to shave like their fathers or perform various tasks around their homes. Girls, meanwhile, often pretend to be mothers to do some daily tasks, particularly if it involves caring for young babies. Sometimes children may imagine belonging to a group of superheroes or imitate(模仿)real-life situations. They might dress up and assume different roles. Another example is the performing of stories they read in books, which is also very common when they role-play.
Another beneficial aspect of role-playing is that it can help children deal with certain actions that may cause them emotional(情感的) pain, such as the fear they face when going to school for the first time or making a visit to the doctor. If children role-play situations like these beforehand, the first that they experience when doing these actions in reality frequently lessons. For this reason, experts encourage parents to allow their children to role-play and even to take part in these activities to help their children master their fears.
Role-playing can benefit children in many ways. There is no activity for which young children are better prepared than fantasy play. Nothing is more dependable and risk-free, and the dangers are only pretend.
