Written By: Psychologist Natasha Tanic
A dollhouse is one of the most popular pretend play toys and it’s an excellent tool for your child’s imaginary play.
Imaginary play spurs development and enables kids to explore different roles and day-to-day activities while having fun.
It is no secret that children learn by observing, imagining, exploring, and creating.
Learning through play is an inseparable part of your child’s development, and pretend play is one of the essential contributors to this development.
Dollhouse play helps kids learn essential life skills, build vocabulary, and develop imagination, creativity, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
Also, dollhouses boost fine motor skills and encourage independence.
Deciding to add a dollhouse to your child’s toy selection can be a big decision. However, learning about the benefits of dollhouse pretend play can make it worth your investment.
So, let’s look into how dollhouses help kids learn and grow.
Dollhouses Promote Social And Emotional Development
When your child engages in pretend play, she is actually experimenting with the social roles and emotional expression that she observes in real life; how they interact with others will determine their future success and happiness.
Dollhouse imaginary play fosters social and emotional intelligence and helps children learn about themselves and the world around them.
By pretending to be different characters and inventing play rules, kids learn how to share, negotiate, take turns, and become independent and responsible.
Role-play allows children to be “somebody else” for a while, enabling them to take on different perspectives and develop empathy.
Furthermore, dramatic play encourages kids to negotiate, agree on roles and rules, and similar.
This fosters cooperation and collaboration, and enables children to begin to recognize other people’s feelings and learn how to respond to them positively.
Also, dollhouse pretend play gives your child a sense of freedom, boosting her self-awareness and self-esteem.
Imaginary play with a dollhouse encourages children to express their feelings, work through difficult emotions, and learn how to manage them.
Research suggests a strong correlation between the child’s ability to interact positively with others and their academic success.
By engaging in everyday pretend play, children gain social independence and emotional maturity.
Dollhouse Pretend Play Encourages Imagination And Creativity
By engaging in imaginative dollhouse play, your child has the opportunity to practice imagination and learn to think creatively, which enhances cognitive flexibility.
As adults, we use our creativity and imagination daily to discover, invent, solve problems, and reach our goals.
Encouraging pretend play in your children will empower them to visualize, think outside of the box, and understand other people’s perspectives and standpoints.
Showing interest and encouraging your child’s imaginative play also stimulates creative development and boosts their self-esteem.
Imaginative Play With A Dollhouse Fosters Cognitive Development
The nature of pretend play helps children develop thinking, learning, and problem-solving abilities.
While engaging in imaginary play with his dollhouse, your child will be deciding how to organize the dollhouse props, what games to play, what rules to set, what roles to take on, and more.
In other words, pretend play presents your child with various problems to think about carefully and solve.
Moreover, dramatic play boosts memory and promotes abstract thinking. During pretend play, children make use of images they have created in their minds to reconstruct social situations and past experiences.
This form of abstract thinking helps kids mentally solve problems and learn how to overcome difficulties.
Playing with dollhouses can also help your child develop numeracy skills, as your little one will learn to count their dolls, chairs, beds, cups, plates, etc. while playing with the dollhouse props.
Dollhouse Pretend Play Improves Language And Communication Skills
Dollhouse role-play encourages children to learn the names of dollhouse props, act out familiar day-to-day situations, express their ideas, decide what roles to take on, and give voice the role they are playing.
These activities now only improve the child’s language and vocabulary, they also encourage communication.
Pretend play with friends is an excellent opportunity for your child to interact, experiment with language, learn to use words appropriately and in context, and explore and expand their vocabulary.
Through dollhouse play, children practice patience and learn to listen to what others have to say. These are essential skills for learning at school and interacting with others.
Dramatic play with a dollhouse also:
- Teaches kids to properly articulate their feelings and ideas
- Helps kids to effectively solve problems through dialogue
- Helps children gain confidence
Dollhouse Dramatic Play Boosts Fine Motor Skills Development
Pretend play provides fantastic physical benefits, allowing your child to be active and develop their fine and gross motor skills.
Fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination improve as your little one tries to dress and undress her dolls or set up the dollhouse’s dining room table.
Fine motor skills require more precise movements of small muscles, more control, and better coordination.
These skills are essential for most school activities, but your child will also need them in life in general.
Delays in fine motor skills development can impair the child’s ability to perform the necessary activities of daily living such as eating, dressing, or grooming. Also, a delay in fine motor skills development may affect the child’s ability to write or use a computer.
Summary
Dollhouses are definitely among the favorites when it comes to pretend play toys and props.
Investing in a dollhouse for your child can be an excellent opportunity for your child’s interactive play and learning.
Dollhouse imaginary play is a unique way to help kids understand social roles and rules, household chores, build vocabulary and language, enhance communication skills, develop emotional control, learn colors, count, practice fine motor, and more.
Dollhouse pretend play is a great source of fun, and it is also an excellent opportunity for your child to learn about and act out real-life roles and situations and develop essential life skills.
Moreover, dollhouses help kids practice language and cognitive skills, and master fine and gross motor skills.
There’s no doubt that overall, playing with a dollhouse is an excellent way to enhance social and emotional skills that are critical for success at school, in relationships, and in life.