Childhood is the period when imagination develops best. At this stage, parents should create all conditions to stimulate the imagination in children. In the following article, Hello Bacsi will help you better understand this issue.
The first years of a child’s life are extremely important because the brain develops rapidly. This is the time when you and your baby do everything together, from reading, playing and singing to walking and eating. Therefore, from a young age, you find ways to stimulate your child’s imagination, encourage creativity and use his brain to think of new things.
How to help children develop imagination?
1. Read books
You can enrich your child’s imagination by reading them comic books. Toddlers are the time when their imaginations develop most naturally. When reading comic books, children can learn many new words and pictures.
Choose books with large, colorful pictures. Young children can absorb many things into their heads. Therefore, you can point to the picture and teach your child pictures like a butterfly or a dinosaur. To increase the appeal, you imitate the sounds of animals, vehicles, and different characters in the story.
2. Limit your baby’s exposure to electronic devices
Although it is not good for children to watch TV, especially for children under 2 years old, many parents still do this. If children are exposed to too many electronic devices, their imagination will be limited. Instead of watching TV, have your child draw a picture they come up with. You should still observe your child, talk about what he sees, and see how he reacts.
3. Let your baby listen to music
Children are too young and do not understand anything about music, but giving them music from a young age is still very good for children. Listening to music with a variety of tunes will encourage children to enjoy singing, dancing, playing with toys or making homemade tools.
You come up with a story and tell it to your child
It’s great to tell your own story to your child because he or she can imagine what the character is like and the plot. In addition, letting children transform into characters will make children interested in the story and stimulate their creativity. It won’t be long before he catches up with the stories you tell him and wants to discover them on his own. At first, your baby will imitate you because that’s how he learns. When the imagination of Children develops, their creativity will surprise you!
What tools can stimulate a child’s imagination?
Anything can support the development of a child’s imagination. A towel can become a brimless hat or plastic beads turn into clouds or snowflakes.
Letting children play simple games can stimulate creativity in children. With batman clothes, children can only transform into this heroic character. You can give your child a basket and a box for them to come up with games with these tools. This is a fun game to stimulate the imagination of children. You participate in the play with your child by guessing what objects are in the box.
What can children learn through playing games?
Children can learn many things through games, daily activities or from their own lives.
1. Social communication skills
The fact that children can make up their own situations or characters such as “I am the father, the mother is the sick baby”, will help the child develop situations with feelings of sadness, joy, and fear. As a result, children can solve emotional problems on their own.
2. Confidence and self-control
Children imagining themselves as superheroes or superheroes will make them feel stronger. Don’t try to ask too many questions about what your baby is doing. Instead, comment on your child with statements like, “Wow, you feel like you’re flying in a spaceship.” This helps your baby’s imagination go in the direction he wants.
3. Problem-Solving
The fact that children can create situations and solve situations on their own will help them become problem solvers as they grow up. Children can cope with challenges or difficult situations on their own. For example, children will know what to do if they forget a book they need to learn for the day at home.
What should you do when your baby is messy?
Your baby’s imagination is like a mountain of messy work. Children may love to use pots and pans from the kitchen to beat drums or stack books on top of each other to form a tower, even his magic kingdom has many bubbles flying around, he blows them up leaving full of bubbles on the floor.
When you feel your baby is about to make a mess, you can take a plastic sheet or newspaper and spread it on the table and floor. This will make cleaning easier.
Should you limit your child’s imagination?
There are some games and objects in the house that can be dangerous for children. Young children explore and discover when they see electric wires, small ropes, and electrical sockets. Sticks and toothpicks falling to the ground also accidentally injure the baby if swallowed. Baby wears a cape or a batman, superman, or Spiderman suit and thinks he’s a superhero, so he jumps down from the top down. There have been many tragic cases, therefore, parents are always careful with children’s games.
Don’t worry too much if your child blames an imaginary friend. You should praise the child when he does well, do not pay too much attention to his mistakes.
Avoid conflicts that your child imagines
However, stimulating the imagination also encounters many barriers. When your child wants to wear a Spiderman costume to school, you can object because adults often want children to follow social norms or rules set by the school. Children don’t need to know those things and just want to wear the clothes they like every day. So what will you do now?
Will you throw a tantrum because your child doesn’t listen to you? Remember that children neither know nor understand what social norms or school rules are, nor are they ashamed of what they do. Therefore, instead of tantrums, you have to spend time explaining to your baby to understand and perceive better. If your child still insists on wearing that outfit to school, you can agree and ask the kindergarten for permission to let him break the rule for one day. The next day, you use the excuse that the clothes have not been washed, if you wear them again, it will be very bad, your friends will stay away, not daring to come near to ask the superhero for help or any other reason you can think of.
What to do to stimulate the imagination in children?
Learning to share is part of developing a child’s imagination. In addition, you should also encourage your baby to listen more. Of course, children’s speaking skills are not good at this time, but they can practice to improve this.
Try telling a story while you’re driving, such as: “Once upon a time, there was a dog who lived with a boy named Bo and one day …”. Then you can ask your child to retell the story and ask him to name the dog.
When your child draws a picture, encourage him or her to tell you what the picture is about. Instead of saying, “What a beautiful house!”, you could say, “You color so well! What’s that over there?” You can also let your child transform into his/her favorite character.
Just simple actions like listening to your baby, observing him every day or reading a book together will help you understand your child better. Apply the above ways to stimulate your baby’s endless creativity!
