Pretend Play
In a previous article I wrote"Starting Off Right," published in the March 2013 issue of Family Flavours, experts stress the importance of pretend play.
In my interview with Early Childhood Development Expert Kathleen Guy, she clarified that pretend play helps children develop self-control and complete tasks. Let's say your child is pretending to be a teacher, she is internally developing her own scenario and engaging in private speech, this according to Guy is creating self-control.
As much as I tried at a younger age, Yousef only got the hang of it now, when he is turning 3 years old, and I have to say, it has wonderfully made its way into every aspect of our lives. he can play for hours with toys he never used to touch and increased his attention span to things he later imitated.
What I did not expect was how big his imagination has grown and now, we are entering the phase of imagining "a scary mask running after me!" I have never faced this before and have NO IDEA of how I should handle it. How do you handle fears of non-exhistant things?I know that I should not minimise his fears, call them silly or unreal, or say that they don't make sense, but then, I get stuck!
In my interview with Early Childhood Development Expert Kathleen Guy, she clarified that pretend play helps children develop self-control and complete tasks. Let's say your child is pretending to be a teacher, she is internally developing her own scenario and engaging in private speech, this according to Guy is creating self-control.
As much as I tried at a younger age, Yousef only got the hang of it now, when he is turning 3 years old, and I have to say, it has wonderfully made its way into every aspect of our lives. he can play for hours with toys he never used to touch and increased his attention span to things he later imitated.
What I did not expect was how big his imagination has grown and now, we are entering the phase of imagining "a scary mask running after me!" I have never faced this before and have NO IDEA of how I should handle it. How do you handle fears of non-exhistant things?I know that I should not minimise his fears, call them silly or unreal, or say that they don't make sense, but then, I get stuck!
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