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The Importance Of Imaginative Play

With the school holidays upon us, most of us are hungry for ideas to keep our children occupied. We want playthings that match up to our own personal toy and play values and that address our concerns surrounding children’s inactivity (of the body and mind) grow. So where do you find those elusive toys that satisfy all your needs? Jo Nicholson, from Little Nut Tree Toys has a few hints and tips to help us on our way.

“Imaginative play is extremely important for young children as this is where they begin the very tricky lesson of working out ‘life situations’ – learning by replaying the situations they’ve seen other children and adults dealing with. It’s an essential ‘game’ – if you like – that involves the stimulation and rehearsal of communication, social and language skills.

“We took a decision at the very beginning of Little Nut Tree Toys not to sell any toys which are battery operated – particularly those that just talk at the child. My daughter was bought a child’s computer when she was 2 years old, and for a long time, all she did was just hit the buttons to hear noise. She couldn’t read the instructions and basically didn’t have a clue what was going on. Too many toys these days are battery operated, do the talking for our children, curtailing their creativity and imaginations.

“Imaginative play is so important, it’s not only the early building blocks of communication, but in encouraging this kind of creativity in children, we are sending out the signal to them that by using their imagination they are able to create solutions to problems. This is something that is an absolute essential in daily life from early childhood onwards.

“There are an amazing variety of traditional toys (non electronic) that encourage imaginative and creative play, such as play sets (like Plan City); train sets; fancy dress costumes; farm sets; kitchen sets; building blocks – and we should be encouraging our children to use these tools for early development. That’s why we concentrate on these types of toys.

“Wonderful toys that are again becoming popular are Hand Puppets and Play Theatres. If your child isn’t used to ‘acting out’ stories then a great way to start is to use characters from a familiar story. We have beautiful hand puppet box sets that feature characters from classic stories, such as Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan, The Three Little Pigs, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

"Using familiar characters and stories is also important. I was talking to my daughter’s nursery teacher and asking whether it was usual for children to want to read and act out the same stories over and over again. There was no doubt in her mind that this is essential for children, as not only does it provide them with security, but also allows them to develop familiarity with the characters, getting to know, understand and build up empathy.

“We also have the most wonderful theatres in stock, too. The Portable Moon Door Theatre is brilliant when play space is at a premium, and the other is a stand alone Tellatale Theatre, which when reversed becomes a shop front , it can also be sat on a table top. This convertible theatre provides the additional element of acting out buying and selling with friends, replaying their real experiences of shopping with parents.

About the Author
Jo Nicholson, a director of www.littlenuttreetoys.co.uk, is passionate about play. She launched the Little Nut Tree Toys website in January 2006 to promote toys that help children learn new skills through fun and stimulating play.

Jo comments: “As a parent, I’m keen to give my daughter and son the best possible start in life, and finding good toys they can enjoy and learn from is invaluable. Having fun is a great way to learn and a toy you can play with alongside your child is something special. Watching your child unravel the secret of a toy is equally amazing – seeing their little faces light up when they know they’ve achieved something for themselves.”

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