Is having lots of games essential for children? Of course not, now among other things a new research has highlighted a very interesting aspect of the way children play: they like much more to do a real activity rather than simulating it with their own toys.
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Is having lots of games essential for children? Of course not, now among other things a new research has brought to light a very interesting aspect of the way children play: they like much more to perform areal activity rather than simulating it with your own toys.
Those who have children may have already noticed it, especially the little ones prefer concrete objects instead of toys and have much more fun when they are engaged in a real activity in the world of adults rather than pretending to do the same activity with the games help.
Playing is the activity par excellence of early childhood and many parents are convinced that collecting toys is a useful way to stimulate the creativity and development of their children. However, a research team from the University of Virginia found that children greatly prefer a different way to play.
We are talking about games like cooking, cutting vegetables, feeding a child, etc. All things that can be done in reality or in fantasy often using expensive toys.
UVA psychology professor Angeline Lillard, who conducted the research in collaboration with Jessica Taggart and Megan Heise, wanted to dig deeper to see what young children would do when faced with the choice of doing a real activity or imitate it.
The researchers sampled 100 middle-class children between the ages of 3 and 6 and tested them in 9 different scenarios. The children were shown photos of two examples of the same activity among which they had to indicate their favorite. Will the little ones have chosen to pretend to bake cookies or to actually bake them? To go fishing in reality or only in fiction? To feed a real baby or a doll?
"What we found is that the children overwhelmingly chose the royal option," said Dr. Taggart. "They chose to pretend in only one of the nine activities."
The preference for real assets increased from 3 years to 4 years, then remained stable until the age of 6.
But why this preference for reality? Professor Lillard answered this question, arguing that concrete activities give children a sense of accomplishment:
“What helps children feel like they have a role in the world, that they can do something in the world? If we always relegate them to the fake kitchen and fake things, we're not giving them a chance to try and do things for real. In fact, the children told us that the reason they wanted to do things in reality was because they wanted to make them happen. And when they said they wanted to pretend, it was usually because they were afraid to do the real thing or they felt they couldn't do it. "
Parents, however, are not always ready to accept the challenge (even the father of a child who participated in the study was opposed to involving him in real activities, arguing that the little ones do not know what is best for them). As Lillard pointed out:
“I think it's important that parents get the message that children send here. Think about it: if you have this choice, if you have the time and the ability to help your children do it for real, the real experience could be very meaningful to them. "
We therefore avoid spending too much money on toys and, when possible, we spend more time with our children to pass them some of our experience and give them the pleasure of doing something concrete and useful. That it also means using a knife with due care and precautions.
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