Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Importance of imaginative play?

How important do you think imaginative play is? What do you classify as imaginative play?

I recently saw a post on another forum about how much more important imaginative play is than academic skills. I totally agreed before I had DS3.5... But somehow he taught himself how to read at 2, & has a fascination with numbers that borders on obsession. I've tried to gently encourage imaginative play in our day to day life, but he rarely seems interested. Often he just looks at me like I'm crazy!

We don't have as many toys as some, but I only purchase open ended toys. He has a play kitchen, a dollhouse, and a Noah's Ark with animals. Although he might play with these from time to time, he's much more interested in his Magnatiles, gears set, card games, or counting holes in the dehumidifier and creating addition problems about it. I've always told myself that these activities require creative thinking, which utilizes a form of imagination... However, I've been wondering lately if he's missing out on the more socially oriented aspects of what might be more traditionally classified as "imaginative play."

Perhaps it's just personality. Maybe he's just not the kind of kid who's ever going to get down on all fours and bark like a dog.

I'd love to hear what y'all think!

I think that it's personality related. My DS6 is much more likely that DS8 to engage in imaginative play. DS8 read at an earlier age and enjoyed legos from an early age. He's also naturally more introverted. I think that all of those things play a role (no pun intended). DS8 did not enjoy imaginative play at all until he was at least 6, and even now it's usually led by his little brother or a friend.

It's so interesting to see how much variety there is in personal preferences!

My DS2.7's type of imaginative play usually centers around something he's built or a tangible new topic or social skill he's learning. For example, yesterday he used his Duplo blocks to build a bomb disposal truck and robot, and we acted out disarming a bomb. He's never seemed to like gratuitous imaginary play--there's always an underlying learning element to it, as though the drama crystallizes the new information in his mind, and then he moves on forever.

This morning, he built a fleet of trucks who solicitously took care of two of their friends who were ill. DS was sick for a few days, so he's internalizing how to care for a sick person. He wouldn't usually find that scenario interesting had he not been sick recently, I don't think.

We have a set of play pots and pans and a tool bench with plastic tools that he loved as a one-year-old but now totally ignores, yet he's always eager to help me cook dinner or do a real repair. We also have a set of beautiful Schleich animals that only ever seem to get used when DS is designing a building, or as fodder when he building his various machines.

Oh, and DS wouldn't do an art project to save his soul. He'd rather describe an imaginary scenario verbally, and have me take dictation, whereas I preferred to paint one as a child.

I think gifted children quickly see the futility in repetitive exercises that produce no meaningful (to them) output. Squishys' son's comment about pretending to be an astronaut sounds exactly like something my DS would say.

My kids love imaginative play and I do feel that it has a big role to play in the formative years.

Having said that, I would not actively force a child to do anything they were not interested in, including imaginative play. My boys love to play based on things they are learning or watching on tv currently.

So current imagination games include Harry Potter (they found an online list of all the spells used and after studying it together for days can now use all of them)
MineCraft (esp Hunger Games)
Frozen - any game has to have the powers variant. Then they are happy.

Powers and Magic. Aiden is convinced magic is real but it's only a power bestowed on the super smart of the world.

HE is happiest when HE gets to control the game and dictate who has what powers etc.

They all have loved at some stage pretending to be an animal, and kitchen play was obsessive for all three of them. Dylan at 3 still is this way. Their grandfather built a playhouse when Aiden was turning 3, and when we moved it got moved, upgraded and enlarged - they all three still use it and the toys inside it.

I encourage imaginative stories, and building/creating to support imagination.

Have you seen this for imaginative play and how all the things you describe really are in support of imagination...:

Caine's arcade:

I think some kids have super heroes in their imagination and other kids imagine numbers as superheroes (for example)

I think it's important for social growth--so much so that we taught it as a skill to DS now 11. It teaches perspective-taking and problem-solving.

My ds never engaged in imaginative play (at least not much) as a young child. Totally different than my dds. When my kids were really young I thought it was just personality - but once ds was mid-elementary school I realized that, for him, it was related to things that he actually needed to take steps to learn due to an expressive language disorder, things that didn't come naturally to him but come naturally to most kids, and that are very important in social interactions as our children grow. So my perspective now is that yes, it's important, and for some kids, you have to help them learn it just as you would teach any other skill.

polarbear

I have one of those, and I can tell you with a fair amount of certainty that you're right. He's never going to do that, and if he has a sister in the future who does, he's going to think she's crazy, too.

I don't know how important imagination may be, but I do know that some people don't have it, and they do ok. Or, more accurately, they don't have a conventional imagination, which sounds like an oxymoron but isn't. Some people's imagination is channeled into numbers and engineering, while others pretend to be dogs. I have one of each.

Thanks for the link! It kind of sums up how I was feeling about imaginative play. It seems like it can take very different forms depending on the child's personality. DS is pretty introverted. It sounds if others might have similar experiences with their introverted kids?

And if numbers can be superheroes - that's exactly where DS is.




I remember when DS was around 20 months, we were with a cousin who was only a couple of months younger. The cousin picked up a remote control and began babbling away as if it was a phone. DS looked at us with a face filled with concern and said in a hushed voice, "It's a remote!" He clearly thought there was something wrong with the poor child!

There are a few engineers and science PhDs in our family, and it seems like that's exactly how DS thinks. He once had a language therapist who asked at their 2nd meeting, "Do you have any engineers in your family?" It's that obvious I guess.



I wonder sometimes about DS's expressive language. He's definitely ahead of the milestones in this area, but he has some quirks that make me think... For example, he often has trouble coming up with words. He'll use ambiguous terms like "that" or "this" and when I press him to explain what he's talking about, it's clear that the words just won't come right away (even for items I've heard him call by name repeatedly).

He also has trouble expressing himself if anyone else is talking. He'll say, "I want you to be quiet! I'm trying to talk!" And then he'll just sit there for a minute saying, "Um... uh... um..." Finally something will come out, but it takes a while to gather his thoughts.

It can also take a fair amount of time for him to process directions. Could be processing... could be language... could be completely developmentally appropriate. At any rate, I'm sure he'd pass any language evaluation, so I don't really know if there's much we could do outside the home. I just think there's a gap in ability and performance. (If that makes sense.)

DD too would think anyone who wants to pretend to be a dog is crazy.

She started doing pretend play when she was 21 months but it was never her thing. Age 2/3, she was very academically oriented but around 38 months or so, she became that child who could play for hours with an empty box and a stick. I didn't do anything to make this change happen. For her, it was purely developmental.

She lives in her capes and costumes. She is a very imaginative/theatrical child and I am happy that her interests have expanded even if it means she loves My Little Pony. I think it'd make socialization easier for her. She wasn't making many friends when all she wanted to talk about was the possibility of fishing on Europa within her life time.

It's really difficult to know what is simply personality or developmentally varied or a true developmental delay with expressive language when children are so young. With our ds, no one recognized any one thing as standing out as an obvious sign of an expressive language disorder, and the things that were signs of it we all (parents, preschool teachers, friends, family etc) saw as simply adorable little quirks, engineer personality (there are a lot of engineers in the family), genetics (previous generations of family members here and there who didn't talk... and to be honest... most likely had an expressive language disorder that no one recognized as such!). Even when he was struggling in school and had his first neuropsych eval the expressive language disorder was missed - hiding behind his dysgraphia. It wasn't until he was around 9 years old and finally able to tell us that he was having a hard time with certain kinds of situational communication that we realized there was more to his challenge than dysgraphia.

I am not saying that your ds has an expressive language disorder - it's really really *really* tough to separate out at his age. I just wanted to point out why I now see the importance of imaginary play, and I'd keep an eye on signs - the disinterest in imaginary play, searching for words etc - once he's in school and once he's a little older and better able to tell you himself what's going on inside, it will become (hopefully!) clearer re whether or not it's just personality or it's just a phase or it's something more.

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - fwiw, our ds also had (still has) difficulty with directions - it's *sometimes* a sign of an LD -

I say, let the children play. If it is "imaginative", then so be it. If it is "intellectual", then so be it. Let them be themselves, and follow their own developmental trajectory.

Interestingly, my older child was huge on imaginary play but rarely did it *with other children.* It was usually a solo activity, where she would talk for the animals, dolls etc to herself but not involve others. The exceptions is/was her brother--I think she is able to trust him enough. Sometimes she would do it with us, too, but it wasn't of great interest to her to do it with us. She definitely has a rich internal imaginary world, though (these days it is channeled into creative writing).

Anyway, I actually thought of this as another sign of her mild social delays. Imaginary play with other children is quite challenging. There are no rules and you have to collaborate very intensely.

I think imaginary play is really important. There are probably other ways to achieve some of the same ends, though.

Really interesting thoughts! It's nice to hear others' experiences with this.

Polarbear- I've thought there might be something going on for quite a while, but as you noted, it's just so difficult to know what's going on at such a young age. I appreciate your comments and I'll keep them in mind going forward... Oh the irony of waiting for a child to tell you he CAN'T communicate!

LOL!

The *really* ironic thing for me, though, is that now that my kids are older - my ds who has the communication challenge is also my child who I have the best open door communication with - he will tell me what he's feeling and I can ask him anything and get a straight answer - granted, sometimes it's not easy to pull the info out, but he is willing to share and the info I get is credible. My dds, otoh, who do *not* have expressive language challenges... are much more likely to try to pull the wool over my eyes or leave out significant details on purpose or forget key things that might be important for a parent to know

polarbear

DD6 has spent most of her free time doing imaginative play since she was about 2. Maybe I can say that her life is centered around imaginative play. She makes up stories with anything she sees. Everything she draws on paper, everything she builds with Lego has a story.
She mostly plays by herself, but also loves to play together with other kids. When she plays by herself, she voice acts for different characters without speaking out the actual stories. But when playing with other kids, they would have to speak out the actual stories. I noticed that DD and friends always enjoyed imaginative play endlessly, even if the friends do not normally do imaginative play at home.

On the other hand, math is definitely her strongest subject by far. I guess this made me believe that imaginative play and mathematical thinking do not need to be mutually exclusive, but can actually complement and help each other.

By the way, I think the TV series Backyardigans is wonderful for promoting kids' imaginative play, and it's one my DD's favorites.

Thanks! The video is really inspiring. I'll show this to DD.
DD wanted to do a lot of cardboard projects after reading "Cardboard genius" books

Based on observing my dd4.8 ( so really limited sample size), I think children use imaginative play to understand the nuances of social interactions, understand deeply a new concept they have learnt and imagine new situations that they may or may not encounter in real life and of course, just for fun.
Dd has engaged in imaginative play for as long as I can remember and some if the characters she assumes are permanent fixtures that have been with us for more than a year and others that are created on an as needed basis. Dd enjoys playing pretend with adults and children alike. however, with adults, she can be the boss as adults tend to understand their exact role and will let her direct their words and actions. With children, she goes with the flow. While I enjoy watching her, I must admit that I am exhausted by the end of some of the crazy pretend days and I crave for normalcy, where I can be me and not in some elaborate role.