Pretend Play
At one, many children will do a lot of imitative play. They love to use plastic cell phones, pretend to shop, and dress up and wear costumes, all trying to act like mom and dad. They will want to use your pots and pans to pretend to cook and will serve you imaginary food on plastic plates and dishes.
Essential
Girls and boys alike, at this age, will enjoy playing with baby dolls. They like to pretend they are moms and dads and take care of their babies — feeding them, washing them, and even reprimanding them. This is an example of the imitative play that one-year-olds love.
Pretend play is like memorization for a one-year-old. It reminds her about her world and the course of her day. By acting like her mom, dad, or teacher, she is experiencing her life from a different point of view, and this helps her mind grow.
The Beginning of Imagination
One-year-olds are only beginning to use their imagination as a tool for play. Their play won't be dramatic (as in creating story lines or with a lot of fantasy), and they won't be able to play with another child in an imaginative way quite yet. In other words, a fifteen-month-old may say to another child his own age, “You be the mommy and I'll be the daddy,” but the two of them will not be able to extend that play out into developing a story line. Instead, they will simply feed the baby, wash the baby, or dress the baby. They may repeat these behaviors over and over again to make sure they get it right.
How Imagination Helps Development
Many parents think fantasy is not as important to learning because it is pretend and not real, but brain development in a young child takes place in a variety of ways. First, she learns adult behavior by taking on the role of a grownup when she cares for her dolls or stuffed animals. Second, she develops empathy and emotional intelligence by taking care of her toys. Third, her brain creates connections when it is engaged in imaginative thought. Creativity — brainstorming, thinking of solutions to problems, and imagination — is a true hallmark of intelligence, so it is important for parents to encourage this type of play. Children don't need much to be creative. Cardboard boxes, pots and pans, paper plates, a few dolls or stuffed animals, and blocks can become houses, a kitchen, a school, and a trip to the grocery store.
