We see less and less symbolic play nowadays, and we wonder if one of the reasons might be the focus on providing educational experiences that are thought to prepare children for academic success. We often come upon the STEM abbreviation that stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It seems to us that many parents are not aware of the fact that engaging in symbolic play is not a waste of time for children and that it is not just about emotional and social development. As champions of make-believe, we would love to show them that it is also about cognitive development – a lot!
MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY HELPS YOUNG CHILDREN UNDERSTAND REALITY
The youngest start by reconstructing familiar events – driving cars, going to sleep, eating. It seems that imitation and repetition provides a way to better understand them.
Later symbolic play grows more fanciful. However, no matter how far it may venture into fantastical worlds, it usually follows the physical and psychological rules that govern reality. After all, make-believe is about representing reality and reflecting on it. Dragons and superheroes may fly, but they do so because they have the necessary natural or technological devices, and they are motivated by the same feelings and relationships that motivate creatures in reality.
Thus make-believe serves to help digest information children get from all available sources, including books, museums, films, etc. In fact, kids most often play with what they have just acquired. In play they process it on their own and construct real knowledge. This type of knowledge is well-consolidated and long-lasting, unlike the ready-made volatile external knowledge that is poured into their brains by adults and devices.
Engaging in symbolic play lets them explore this knowledge from an endless number of perspectives and keeps them interested in it. This is how some children become truly knowledgeable on some topics.
SYMBOLIC PLAY PROVIDES KIDS WITH SOPHISTICATED MENTAL TOOLS
SYMBOLIZING
The main thinking tool that symbolic play provides is … symbolizing. When a child takes a stick and uses it as a horse, it is not the material object of the stick that matters but the meaning the child gives to it.
While observing nature and culture and interacting with them in a straightforward way is a really important and enriching experience, playing with meaning takes children away from observable reality.
It might seem impractical and a waste of time, but as parents we should look further and know better. It is the unobservable reality that takes center stage when a child becomes a student. Students are asked to think about distant objects and events – when they study history and geography. They will have to think about microscopic objects and their actions, for example how viruses and bacteria act in our bodies and how our immune systems fight back. To understand unobserved reality, we need the capacity to imagine, and the natural way for children to develop it is to engage in symbolic play – as thousands of generations have done. In fact, children are in desperate need of that as they are also affected by screens that make them passive recipients of information. Sadly, we all know children who are so addicted to their devices that they have been made incapable of coming up with anything to do and are truly frustrated and bored when they are separated from their electronic companions.
NARRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR THINKING
Modern babies and young children are constantly offered toys and games that prompt them to analyze, sort, divide into categories. As responsible adults we believe that this will help them not just get some basic knowledge of the world but also teach them how to think like little scientists and help them prepare for school and career. What we teach them this way is called paradigmatic thinking.
However, in order to get to know the world and ourselves better and live meaningful lives, we need more tools than the ones offered by logic and science. One of these tools is narrative thinking. It was explored by the psychologist Jerome Bruner, whose narrative theory has informed a good part of the research on children’s play. Symbolic play is closely related to this mode of thinking, and it immensely helps children use it in sophisticated ways.
This is a topic in which we are interested, so we will soon write some resources to introduce you to the concept in a clear and useful way.
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
You might be acquainted with Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. It is based on the idea that there is no single general intelligence but a number of several different intelligences, i.e. relatively discreet intellectual abilities – Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Logical-Mathematical, Naturalist, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Linguistic, Musical. Other scholars have proposed additional intelligences.
Researchers of symbolic play suggest that in children’s make-believe we could see the beginnings of multiple intelligences, that various media used in it (dolls, words, blocks, etc.) provide the means to develop different types of these intelligences. They say that in the forms of symbolic play one can see the prototypes of later activities that humans practice at their more mature stages. Biographies have taught us that many people who have reached mastery in their fields can trace back the beginnings of the development of their skills in their play as children. A well known example is the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright who claimed that he began his career by playing with his blocks as a child.
WHAT COMES NEXT
We would love to share with you our knowledge of narrative thinking and some other aspects of symbolic play and how it contributes to emotional and social development. Follow our blog for more resources. You can also subscribe to our Instagram for updates.
REFERENCES
Children’s Play by W. George Scarlett, Sophie Naudeau, Dorothy Salonius-Pasternak & Iris Ponte
Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard E Gardner
The Narrative Construction of Reality by Jerome Bruner