Your best ways for encouraging/teaching pretend play...

[kayte]

Just curious. In your home, how do you encourage, teach, cultivate, model pretend play?

Best activities for dress up, role playing, dollhouse (castle, firehouse, etc...) play, etc... ?

My 2.5 yo loves to do these activities but they are currently just re-enactments of whatever version mom or dad exhibited first. I am sure it's probably the right stage of development for her age --I just wandered what everyone else does and how to help her into the next stage of making it up as she goes...

[maestramommy]

I would love to know because we just follow Dora's lead, and she is just starting to do it. Little things, like putting a cup on her head and pretending it's a hat. Or putting a sock on her hand and pretending it's a sock puppet. I think she got that from an episode of Blues Clues though :)

She does spend a long time talking to herself, singing and laughing, sometimes when reading by herself, but mostly in the hour before falling asleep at night. Would that be considered pretend play? Or fantasy play?

I guess Dora isn't really into role play. For instance, she loves trucks, fire engines, trains, anything mechanical. But she loves looking at them in books, and seeing the real thing in action. She has very little interest in playing with toy versions. She still likes playing with balls, like that noisy ball popper, pushing her ride-on at top speed, and reading reading reading.

MIL got her one of those Ukranian babushka dolls (set of 10!). We put together the 4 easiest ones to open and close. She loves it. The first 2 days she kept playing with it. Now it's kinda waned, but she'll probably come back to to it later.

[cuca_]

I think that at 2.5 a reenactment of what Mom and/or Dad did with a particular toy or game is great. My DDs (especially DD1) are great pretend players, and have huge imaginations. I don't think it is anything that I specifically did, but that they are wired that way, and we went with it.

I have no theories or research to share with regards to pretend play, but this is what has worked at our house:

We have lots of dress-up clothes and accessories. And these can range from actual costume to my old clothes/shoes. They love dressing up and coming up with scenarios. (Usually my older DD leads).

We have a lot of pretend play toys like little people, playmobile, dolls, stuffed animals, etc...

I think reading to them a lot helps to, as it seems to feed their imaginations.

Exposing to different things/experiences in their daily life - grocery store, zoo, museums, etc... For example, when my DD 1 was starting to pretend play she would pretend the dining room chairs were the seats of a car and she would pretend to drive different places. I remember she used to drive us to the zoo and then we'd walk all over our house looking at the imaginary animals).

In sum, I think it is important to encourage it by going along with your child's imagination. Once your child starts a scenario/imaginary situation go with it and even expand on it. It's ok if you are initially coming up with a lot of the detail. I think that as she grows older she will make up more and more imaginary situations on her own.

Again, this is just coming from my personal experience. I have not done any research regarding imaginary/pretend play, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

HTH

[hillview]

We just do very silly things. We pretend I am a lion. DS takes a bite like a lion. I wonder if the stroller is a dragon. For me this is an outlet for either being a tad bored or just being silly. He is now all about the imagination. Right now I am putting the puzzle away in the wrong places and DS has to fix it.
/hillary

[cvanbrunt]

While we never watched very much, I just decided to turn off the TV/DVD. For three weeks, we just didn't watch. She asked every day for about a week and whined a little for 20 minutes the first day and that was about it. She needed to amuse herself and the pretend play really picked up. Now, I'm silly with her every chance I get. That helps a lot. I also started asking her to make things for me, like dinner and a cake. She starts by going to the store, then she's just into it for a long time. We just got back from dinner at the neighbors'. DD and her friend played for a little while and then started getting demanding with the adults' attention. I asked them to make me a big list of silly food and they just laughed and disapeared for two hours, making only two appearances with "donuts and chocolate milk".

[maestramommy]

While we never watched very much, I just decided to turn off the TV/DVD. For three weeks, we just didn't watch. She asked every day for about a week and whined a little for 20 minutes the first day and that was about it. She needed to amuse herself and the pretend play really picked up. Now, I'm silly with her every chance I get. That helps a lot. I also started asking her to make things for me, like dinner and a cake. She starts by going to the store, then she's just into it for a long time. We just got back from dinner at the neighbors'. DD and her friend played for a little while and then started getting demanding with the adults' attention. I asked them to make me a big list of silly food and they just laughed and disapeared for two hours, making only two appearances with "donuts and chocolate milk".

Interesting! Dora hasn't watched any TV since we moved in almost a month ago, because the TV/DVD player isn't set up yet. She hardly asks for it now, and when I tell her the TV isn't working she always says, "have to ask Daddy to set up" but of course never remembers. Her conversations with herself have really taken off since we moved here, and she spends literally hours playing. I thought it had to do with being in this new, much larger space, and maybe it is partly that. But maybe it also has to do with entertaining herself by herself!

[purpleeyes]

BLOCKS!
They can be anything...roads, garage, house, zoo, etc. We have a basket of blocks in every place the kids play. ;)
We have dress up clothes-I started with a little vest for a construction worker and a garbage man, b/c that was what DS was into. Now, we have doctor, fireman, pirate, conductor...
We use everyday things and make them into whatever he wants-the couch is a pirate ship, the table is a fort, etc.
Also, a good book:
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Make-Believe-Saving-Commercialized-World/dp/1565849701

Have fun! :)

[squimp]

I think reading always stimulates pretend play for us. Dress up clothes (a box filled with old hats and skirts), blocks and perhaps some plastic or wooden figures. A $10 tube of animals from the zoo was played with for months. Blankets over a tabel for a playhouse or a guinea pig cage or a castle. Pretend play really starts en force at age 3 maybe even 3.5. We're really in the swing of it here at age 5.

[KBecks]

I don't know. I would read to her a lot. Reading is just awesome in general, but I would provide a lot of breadth of stories about many topics so she has more awareness of different places and people and situations, etc.

Other than that I wouldn't do a whole lot. My older son doesn't do a lot of imaginative play, he's almost 4, but my 2 year old was picking up sticks the other day and calling them dinosaur bones. He's probably exposed to more because of being around his older brother, but he is more naturally inclined to imagine on his own.

I think it's important for kids to imagine on their own and I haven't pushed imagination on them, like me setting up scenes and scenarios.

[annasmom]

I think for 2.5, she is probably doing just great! My dd probably started around that time, and then her younger brother started younger - following her lead.

We are lucky in that my dc play very well together, and I hear them making up stories all day long.

I think real life, e.g., grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, school, etc. is their biggest inspiration. Toys are great, but in my experience, my dc will make do with what they have on hand. For instance, I have bought a ton of play food in the past, only to have them use blocks and stacking cups as food instead.

Good luck, and have fun!!

[carolinamama]

Some of this is probably age-related. DS just turned 3 last week and his pretend play has really taken off in the last month or so. We read to him quite a bit and he loves books. But we also just go along with his lead. We do provide him with open-ended toys I suppose. He loves his kitchen and it seems that almost anything can become whatever food he wants it to be. We don't try to correct or stop it since he knows he is pretending. My breast pump accessories became everything from pancakes to cameras last week, and I just went with the flow (even if it did mean I had to wash them again) because he was being so creative.

At 2.5 ds wasn't nearly as creative as he is now. Give it time and I am sure your dd will get into pretend play more and more.