Pretend Play for Children: A Guide for Parents

Every child loves make-believe. If you’ve ever seen your child put their doll to bed or dress up like their favorite superhero, encourage it! Pretend play is an excellent outlet for expressing emotions, creativity, and ideas.

Learn how pretend play can improve your child’s cognitive development, social skills, and independence, and how you can join in on the fun.

What is Pretend Play?

Pretend play, also known as imaginative play, enables children to express themselves through a make-believe context [*]. They might act out imaginary scenarios, imitate things they’ve experienced in real life, or use realistic toys to mimic everyday actions, such as cooking or playing house.

Benefits of Pretend Play for Children

Pretend play isn’t just for entertainment. It can improve a child’s understanding of the world around them. Here are some unexpected benefits of pretend play.

Cognitive development

Because pretend play is open-ended, it encourages children to be creative and imaginative. Through this creativity, children exercise new ways of thinking and understand the boundaries between make-believe in reality. This understanding makes them more cognitively flexible and enhances skills such as short-term memory and critical thinking [*].

By devising scenarios and assigning roles, children learn to problem-solve. They might make up situations that require their characters to overcome obstacles or find creative solutions.

These scenarios can also improve a child’s language and vocabulary, as they may encounter and use new words related to their role-playing. Through pretend play, children must communicate their ideas and intentions.

Social and emotional development

When playing pretend, children can explore their emotions freely and in a more comfortable environment. For example, they might soothe a “crying” baby when playing with a doll, which demonstrates their ability to empathize with others.

Role-playing puts them in an excellent position to anticipate how others might react in certain social situations. When engaging in pretend play with others, children exercise their ability to assign and portray roles while recognizing new beliefs, intentions, and thoughts.

In the same thread, children can explore their emotions in a safe and regulated space. By taking on different roles and walking in others’ shoes, children develop empathy and a wider emotional vocabulary without the threat of real-world consequences.

As they navigate these imaginary scenarios, children build confidence and gain a sense of accomplishment through their characters.

Flexibility

Pretend play encourages cognitive flexibility by allowing children to adapt to different roles, scenarios, and perspectives, particularly when they represent characters. Imaginative scenarios might motivate children to adapt to twists and turns and come up with creative solutions to make-believe problems.

Independence

Pretend play enhances a child’s independence by creating a sense of identity and belonging. Because they’re free to explore their thoughts and emotions in ways that are most comfortable to them, they can discover what they like and dislike.

Encouraging pretend play can make children more confident, as it allows them to “rehearse” scenarios in a safe space.

Stages of Pretend Play by Age

Children often engage in pretend play in stages, especially as their interests and strengths change. Here’s how pretend play may vary according to age.

1-2 Years: Early imitation and symbolic gestures

Younger children engage in object substitution, a process where one object is used to represent another symbolically [*].

These symbolic play scenarios don’t represent a whole “story.” Instead, they focus on simple reenactments of things your child has already experienced. These actions demonstrate a child’s basic understanding of the world around them.

What it looks like: Your child might pretend their hairbrush is a microphone or a banana is a phone.

2-3 Years: Simple role play

By two years old, children can reenact more dramatic scenarios, such as visiting the doctor or going to play school. They might use dolls or stuffed animals to represent real people.

What it looks like: During this stage of pretend play, children start exercising their vocabulary, imagination, working memory, and social skills.

3-5 Years: Complex scenarios, multiple characters, storytelling

During the preschool years, kids might engage in scenarios where they represent real people, such as a parent, grandparent, or teacher. They might also pretend to take on professional roles like doctors, firefighters, or policemen.

This age is perfect for fantasy play, which involves your child acting out scenarios they may have seen in movies or on television [*].

What it looks like: If your child is a fan of dolls, action figures, or stuffed animals, they might assign roles to these toys and give them voices and personalities. During fantasy play, they might pretend to tame a dragon or live in a fairy community.

6+ Years: Rule-based and group imaginative games

By age six and older, children can role-play in a more complex and specific manner. For instance, when playing house, they might assign roles like Mom, Dad, and Baby to their peers and create more detailed scenarios.

What it looks like: They’ll engage more in cooperative play with stories that have a beginning, middle, and end. They might also use toys and household items to create imaginary environments like a restaurant or a castle.

How Parents Can Support Pretend Play

Pretend play offers a valuable opportunity for children to develop their social and communication skills. Here are a few tips for how to encourage pretend play.

Create a safe and open-ended play environment

Pretend play most often occurs at home. Keep your child motivated and encouraged by creating a safe and healthy environment for play. Outside of their room, you can designate areas for pretend play in the living room and garden, if you have one.

Provide props and toys that encourage pretend play

Build your child a pretend play props kit, including items like:

• Dolls and stuffed animals
• Dress-up clothes
• Playsets like kitchens or bathrooms
• Boxes and blankets
• Safe, real-world tools

Ensure that the tools you provide are age-appropriate and easy for children to use by themselves. Avoid toys with too many moving parts or that may pose a choking hazard.

Encourage creative scenarios

One of the best ways to support your child’s creativity is to explore and provide new ideas. If you’re not sure who they’re pretending to be or what story they’re trying to tell, ask questions like, “What does this person do? What do they wear? Where do they live?” Find ways to help your child build on the story they’ve created.

Join in the play

Grown-ups don’t have to watch from the sidelines. They can join in the play, too! Let your child lead the way. React to their creativity.

For example, if your child is pretending to be a chef, place an order! If they’re pretending to be a doctor, tell them about your symptoms.

Foster different play experiences

Creative play can happen anywhere—at home, school, or a friend’s house. When your child is with their peers, encourage them to engage in cooperative play.

For instance, your child might suggest building a fort together, pretending to be a team of superheroes, finishing a puzzle, dressing up, or playing house.

The Bottom Line

A little make-believe goes a long way in your child’s social and emotional development. By providing them with the space and tools to exercise their creativity, you can use pretend play to expand your child’s vocabulary, improve their thinking skills, and enhance their problem-solving abilities.

Looking for more ways to engage your child’s mental wellness? Explore our collection of social emotional learning worksheets for more fun activities.

Sources:

1. Weisberg DS. “Pretend play.” WIREs Cognitive Science, 2015.
2. Revencu B. “Object substitution pretense reflects a general capacity to interpret objects as symbols.” Psychological Review, 2024.
3. Lillard, A. S., Lerner, M. D., Hopkins, E. J., Dore, R. A., Smith, E. D., & Palmquist, C. M. “The impact of pretend play on children's development: A review of the evidence.” Psychological Bulletin, 2013.
4. Singer D & Singer J. “Perspectives on Play and Playgrounds.” Play from Birth to Twelve, 2015.