What is role play?

Role play is a crucial part of every kid’s development process. All of us definitely participated in role-playing during childhood, not because it positively influenced the process of getting to know the world better or boosted communication skills and imagination but because it’s simply so fun! So, role play is the opportunity for a kid to try on different social roles and live a new experience. Moreover, it helps a child develop social skills, namely, inter and intrapersonal ones, as a kid learns to put themselves in the other person’s place. Thus, cognitive skills are also influenced positively by role-playing.

Why is role-playing so important for a kid?

The essential feature of a good activity is that your child should actually like it and share the desire to start doing it. So, when a kid wants to play pretend to be a person, occupation, or even an animal, just be supportive. For a child, role-playing is a possibility to express their own ideas of communication, behavior, or life in general in a safe environment. Role play benefits a child in terms of developing language proficiency and confidence while acting as a part of society.

How to organize role-playing?

One important thing to know about role-play activities is that they happen spontaneously whenever your child wants to start doing that. That means you should not act as an event organizer or activity. You may guide the kid whenever it’s essential but do not put much pressure on them. Remember that you can encourage and support the activity without wholly managing the role play. Provide all the necessary materials and items the child may need throughout the game. Some role-playing examples are pretending to be a doctor, participating in a space flight, or just imitating an adult talk in different situations.

10 fun role-playing games for a kid.

There is an unlimited variation for role-play activities; you should let your child’s imagination go wild and participate in any role-play they want. The major types of role-playing are occupations, social roles, books or cartoon characters, and animals. Yet there are some examples of this activity you may want to try.

Shop

Does your kid enjoy shopping? Either way, a child definitely will like role-playing shops! It’s quite a simple activity in terms of organization. All you will need are items to sell and buy and money. It is also possible to organize some kind of shelves and price tags to reach the reality effect. You can make your own money using paper, pencils, and imagination. A kid may set up any type of shop they want, for example, a toy or grocery shop. Thus, a kid will get an amazing new experience in the role-playing activity. Moreover, it’s a nice way to practice numbers and some computational skills.

Cooking

No wonder kids adore this role play as food is an inseparable part of every person’s life that keeps us alive. Children observe their parents cooking every day; it is so exciting to try doing it alone, isn’t it? So let your kid play pretend they’re cooking some food to feed family members or as a part of a chef’s work in the restaurant. Take part in this game, pretending you’re really eating and enjoying all the food your kid made for you. This will help the child to understand the importance of the daily routine and give them an awareness of the forces invested in it.

Pilot

Getting the experience of being a pilot is so special. A kid loves pretending to be on a flight, taking off the land.

Hospital

There are different variations of this particular role play. For example, a kid may want to try being a doctor and do some check-ups or give a fake injection to a toy. In this case, a person investigates the importance of health care and empathy for people or animals. Moreover, a child may want to be patient; it also may be fun. To start the ‘hospital activity’ prepare some suitable items such as medical tools, toys for them to be patients or medical staff, and white coats.

Tea party

The tea party is a traditional activity through which a kid may take care of all the animals in the room. Children love suggesting a cup of tea to everyone around!

Family

This role play may be arranged individually or with the help of some friends and family members. A child may pretend to be a mother, father, or even a kid. Throughout the game, a child acquires an experience of different family roles and experiences the behavioral traits that are common for the subject of pretend play.

Superhero

Kids love imagining themselves as their favorite character, such as superheroes for example. During this role-play, a child may let their imagination go wild and think they’re actually magical and special. Moreover, some good examples may serve as role models for future actions and behavioral traits.

Animal

Pretending to be an animal is quite common for kids. They use their imagination to understand better what it’s like to be someone else but human. It impacts the development of empathy for animals in terms of understanding that they also have thoughts and feelings.

Office worker

This activity may look boring for parents but definitely not for children! It’s so much fun imagining yourself as an adult doing the most adult work you may think of – being an office worker. All you need is a table, a chair, and a bunch of paper. Now your child is ready to gain experience of being a responsible one!

Princess or prince

Princesses and prices nowadays are great examples of how smart, brave, and fearless both girls and boys are. So, it’s a great way for a child to mimic the best behavioral traits of these characters.