What your child actually means is that they have been engaged in role play, and the dressing up area is currently a post office. So what exactly is role play and how does it help your child?
Types of role play
Role play, also referred to as imaginative play, is an important activity in most pre-schools, nurseries and schools. Children literally take on roles and act out scenes and characters. Your child's nursery or school is likely to have a home corner or dressing-up area to help children play in this way. You may find that at times this area changes into, for example, a shop, travel agent or garage, so that your child can play a variety of roles. Your child is also likely to have opportunities to play with dolls, farm animals or small figures. These types of toys are sometimes called 'small world toys'. Children play in a slightly different way with this type of equipment. Instead of striding in and being the character themselves, they tend to take on a directing role and move the characters around accordingly.
What do children get from this type of play?
This type of play has multiple benefits. First, children rehearse, extend and use language in a variety of situations. They may take on the role of the shopper and pretend to count and write a shopping list, as well as ask politely (one hopes!) for things. Changing the backdrop of the role play area into, for example, a train station, helps children acquire new vocabulary and expressions in context.
Adults may at first play alongside the children to demonstrate the new vocabulary or read a story so that children understand what happens in a shop, train station or newsagent.
Learning to co-operate
It is in the role play area or lying down with small world equipment where many children learn the skills of co-operation with others. Your child is likely to take turns, agree on what should happen next and learn to negotiate, even if this means the odd amicable squabble. This type of socialisation can really help children to learn about being with others, as there will be some periods of time when adults allow children to play alone and to develop their own world.
Gaining confidence
Finally, children gain huge amounts of confidence from role play.
Confidence is like a magic suit of armour, and the children who are armed with it are usually more willing to try out new activities and able to cope more easily with changes. In terms of role play, confidence is gained by practising necessary skills such as dressing, but it is also gained by organising their own play. This means taking decisions and considering the possible consequences. It may mean that children keep repeating a play event until they are satisfied with it.
Being able to make decisions in their play in this way is particularly important for children because in other areas of their lives, it is normally the adults who make the decisions.
Role play at home
As with many activities that are good for young children, role play does not have to be reserved for nursery or school. You may have already noticed that your child enjoys wearing your shoes or putting on your scarves. This means that you can build on your child's natural desire to 'act and learn'
by developing your own range of props at home. These do not have to be 'ready- made' - sometimes simple things such as a pair of shoes, a bag and then a huge cardboard box will set the scene for your child. Be ready to join in yourself, as children often enjoy having an adult playmate whom they can direct. Just don't expect to win any Oscars yet!
