The symbolic game. How it benefits children

Symbolic play is fundamental to the cognitive and emotional development of any child. The game of imitating, that of roles, doing as if it were, is the game par excellence of childhood. He is the one who dominates a large part of the games in the early years of our children. Parents should facilitat

Symbolic play is fundamental to the cognitive and emotional development of any child. The game of imitating, that of roles, doing as if it were, is the game par excellence of childhood. He is the one who dominates a large part of the games in the early years of our children.

Parents should facilitate symbolic play and encourage its development by allowing nuestros our children to recreate different situations personajes and characters spontaneously or directed by an adult. What is the symbolic game The symbolic game is all that spontaneous game, which arises naturally at home, in the park or at school, where

the children use their capacity of mental representation to recreate a whole scenario of game.

Through this type of symbolization we can observe how they turn a broom into a horse or a stick into a magic wand. It's that kind of game in which children play as if they were dads, moms or other people or real or imaginary characters. The symbolic game allows the externalization of learned behaviors through observation but also stimulates the learning of new ones

. It also facilitates the expression of feelings and the activation of skills and socio-emotional skills, which provides great benefits in the maturational process of children. 10 benefits of symbolic play in childrenThe benefits of symbolic play are observed at all levels of child development, from psychomotor skills to the expression of emotions, encouraging and stimulating a range of personal and social skills of children the time he improves his linguistic capacity. Thus the symbolic game stimulates the development of the physical, psychic, affective and social functions of the children insofar as: F 1. It encourages imagination and creativity.

2. Encourages the learning of new behaviors.

3. Promotes the acquisition of skills and social competencies such as teamwork, cooperation, negotiation, empathy.

4. Allows the acquisition of new vocabulary.

5. Releases tensions and helps externalize feelings and emotions. Playing to be children can manifest their fears, anguish, anger or sadness in an appropriate way without fear of being reprimanded.

6. Facilitates the knowledge of their own physical possibilities by developing their psychomotricity and mastery of their body.

7. It facilitates the knowledge of the environment that surrounds them and the functioning of things.

8. Encourages self-esteem and self-control, provides self-confidence.

9. Stimulates curiosity, the motor of any learning.

10. It helps to structure thinking.

'A child who does not play will be an adult who does not think

' (Shchiller)