Imagination is an important part of life and it begins from a very young age. It is sometimes confused with daydreaming or timewasting, but encouraging the imagination of your child can benefit them in many ways for the rest of their lives.
In this article, we’re going to talk about why imagination is important and how to encourage it.
Benefits of imagination
Developing your child’s imagination should be a priority. It has been shown to lead to:
- Better problem-solving skills
- Enhanced social skills
- Higher levels of empathy
- Self-confidence
- Better memory
All of these skills can help your child in so many ways at every stage of their life.
Read, read, read
Encouraging your children to read is important. It has been shown not only to improve imagination but lead to better educational results. Books are one of the best ways to stimulate imagination in children and can also be a great way to spend time together.
Choose books suitable for their age from lexile books and if they’re a bit reluctant, try and find books which match their other interests such as sport, dancing, science, etc.
Encourage free play
Children’s schedules are much busier today than they have ever been. Between school, homework, and school activities and play dates, it’s difficult for children to decompress and just participate in the undirected play, that’s why sometimes for assignments as essays is good to use services like an essay writing service reddit so they can have a little more time for themselves. Give them time without scheduled activities or screens and let them just play.
Go outside
There’s nothing like a new environment to stir the imagination. Try and visit different places and different types of locations. This can be the countryside, museums, and cities.
Don’t do everything for them
The benefit of a great imagination is the ability to problem solve and think of solutions. If you are constantly doing everything for your child in every situation, you are robbing them of the chance of using their imagination to work it out for themselves.
Tell stories
What takes more imagination than making up stories on the spot? Spend time telling each other stories about a particular topic. It may be a little difficult at first but you’ll soon find them creating great tales from everyday situations and fantastical scenarios.
Less screen time
A lot of learning is done on screens now. Add to this TV shows and games and kids can spend a lot of time staring at screens. While there are some benefits, you should really try and limit the amount of time they spend watching as they will not learn in the same way. Screens lead to passive learning, which uses different parts of the brain. So while they may be watching amazing things, they aren’t learning and developing as they would in the real world.
Key takeaways
Don’t see imagination as something that is purely childish or of no use in adult life. Cultivating your child’s imagination is an amazing thing you can do for them and will benefit them in so many different ways, from how well they do in school to how they develop relationships.
