When children put on dress-up clothes and pretend to be grown up, they are discovering more than how it feels to stumble in adult-sized shoes. “Pretend play” helps children to understand how other people think and feel. It gives children the opportunity to discover new experiences or new places they can see only in their imagination. This is called symbolic thinking, and it is an important, complex skill necessary for many tasks in life, including language and communication, social skills, and even algebra and geometry.
When we watch children playing in dress-up clothes, we notice they often use problem-solving skills they see adults use. Negotiation and shared responsibility become easier when children are pretending to be adults. They are gaining a sense of adult rules and expectations.
Sometimes children may find the dress-up area a place to confront fears and work through stressful situations. By pretending to be a doctor or a monster, a child gains a sense of power over the unknown. By acting out a traumatic event and talking about it, the event becomes less scary to the child.
Often boys will wear dresses or girls might put on a necktie. These are learning experience that help children explore what it means to be a boy or girl, and that our gender does not change simply because of what we are wearing.
Stay tuned on the next blog for suggestions for ways to encouraging dramatic play in your classroom.
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