Imagination and children development

Published: 21 May 2021 Tagged: childrencognitive developmentdevelopmentearly childhood educationimaginationknowledgelearning differencesSpeakablestimulationtips

Children develop their physical and mental skills through various internal and external factors, which include one sometimes neglected by many parents and educators: the imagination. According to Einstein, imagination is more valuable than knowledge itself, since imagination opens the door to possibilities and experiments. As well, a Russian psychologist named Lev Vygotsky had provided remarkable studies supporting the role of imagination on children’s learning process. This scholar stands for the highest efforts towards imagination in learning environments since early years, both at a learning environment and at home. He points out six main benefits from the stimulation of imagination in early years:

• Exploring new ideas
• Practicing problem-solving
• Planning and testing ideas and solutions
• Learning through trial and error
• Taking calculated risks
• Learning to accept failure and trying again

Speakable is a clinic enthusiastically dedicated to the stimulation of imagination during sessions, with an open-minded set of techniques to engage and entertain clients while performing therapeutical procedures. Our team has created a list with great activities to be performed at school or at home to stimulate children’s imagination and have better development across the years:

• Spend time outdoors. The world is vast and offer an infinite number of opportunities for children to use their imagination. Observing the nature, people, transport vehicles, using the five senses towards new sensorial experiences, finding shapes, colours and patterns. Everything can be a rich source of imagination.
• Invent scenarios and play roles. When children pretend that they are an astronaut, archaeologist, athlete, doctor, policeman, firefighter, teacher and many other professions, they are exploring human relationships and getting more clues of their interests, maybe even their future professional interests. Fictional scenarios are as valuable as realistic ones, such as starship battles, Tolkienian adventures, superhero situations... These fictional ones allow them to better separate what is possible in the real world and what is not.
• Verbal activities. From rhymes to riddles, silly sounds to phonics, these fun activities encourage children to try new words and meanings, enriching their vocabulary.
• Encourage arts and crafts. When children can express themselves through artistic ways, their imagination is strongly stimulated. Plastic arts, poetry, dancing, playing instruments, cooking, working with wood, metal and other materials (always with an adult), they are adding new layers to a simple message or piece of information.
• Encourage reading. Reading books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and other text-based sources is a great way to stimulate imagination, no matter if it’s about real things or fictional stories.
• Limit screen time. It’s inevitable that children will be too much time trying to use some screen-based device (television, computer, tablet, smart phone, handhelds, video games, etc.), but these devices actually limit imagination, since they provide visual and sound elements that the viewer doesn’t need to imagine anymore. However, limit it entirely is also not effective, because the watched/played material (movie, series, animation, game) could be used for children to imagine how it was produced, how computer effects and practical effects work, what is the role and talent of actors, how to develop games, and many other reasons.
• Flexible time versus scheduling. Though children definitely need order and routine for many daily activities, there should be some flexibility at moments, so children can feel free to control part of their days with their own desires and preferences.
• Be part of it. Children can feel even better using their imagination when someone enters in the story or situation with them. If children play with cars, you ask permission to control one of them and really engage in it. If the child built a phone, you take yours and pretend you’re calling the fake phone to have a role-played conversation.
• ‘I wonder’ questions. When you think out loud about your own imagination, children can see that it’s acceptable to explore their different ideas. You can explore many different reflections such as ‘I wonder how a rocket works and how it can go to space’, or ‘I wonder how rain and snow fall from the sky’ or even ‘I wonder where those people are going right now’. It activates the child’s interest to imagine thousands of possibilities, just to guide to serious conversations explaining about those topics.

By employing one or more of those initiatives, you will easily see how significant the use of imagination is for the learning and development of children since early ages.