Why role play is the best thing you’re not doing enough of

You’ve probably watched your child make a pirate ship out of a cardboard box, serve you

imaginary soup, or insist they are, categorically, a dinosaur. Funny? Absolutely. But here’s what the research says: this seemingly silly play is doing more for their development than almost anything else at this age.

It’s building their brain

Role play — also called symbolic or pretend play — is one of the most cognitively complex

things a young child can do. According to the LEGO Foundation’s extensive research on

learning through play, imaginative play is the primary way young children develop the breadth of skills they’ll need throughout their lives. When a child pretends to be a shopkeeper, a doctor, or a very important dinosaur, they’re practising planning, sequencing, problem-solving, and abstract thinking simultaneously.

A 2022 peer-reviewed study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that structured role play programmes significantly improved cognitive flexibility and symbolic thinking in preschool-aged children.

It’s teaching them how to be with other people

Role play is fundamentally social. Children negotiate roles, take turns, resolve disagreements, and practise empathy by literally stepping into someone else’s shoes. Developmental experts consistently note that children who engage in rich imaginative play develop stronger communication skills, larger vocabularies, and better emotional regulation.

It’s giving them a safe space to process the worldYoung children use play to make sense of things that are confusing, scary, or just new. Playing

‘going to the doctor’ before an actual appointment, or pretending to be the teacher after a tricky day at nursery, is how children rehearse and integrate experiences. It’s emotionally intelligent in the most instinctive way.

So what can you do?

You don’t need a room full of expensive props. A few open-ended items — a piece of fabric,

some wooden blocks, an old handbag — are often more generative than highly themed toys.

The key is letting them lead: your job is to follow the story, not direct it.

At Finnegan’s World, our role-play pods are designed precisely for this — spaces where the

imaginative rules are set by whoever’s in them that day. Come and see what they come up with.

Sources:

LEGO Foundation: ‘Learning through play’ research programme — www.leofoundation.org

Bonilla-Sánchez et al. (2022), ‘The benefits of role play in the development of drawing in preschool children’,

Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1010512

Childhope Philippines: ‘The Importance of Role Play in Child Development’, 2024 — childhope.org.ph