Playing Dress Up is a rite of childhood. Children love to put on special clothes and pretend to be someone or something else. As adults we should encourage pretend play as much as possible as a child learns an incredible amount while playing.
Here a just a few skills that child works on while doing dress-up:
- Feeling empathy
- Increasing their vocabulary
- Exploring imagination
- Thinking in the abstract
- Building social skills such as taking turns, cooperation and socialization
- Problem solving
- Acquiring confidence and a sense of self
Setting the environment for dress-up is easy. First get a box and decorate it as storage for the dress-up or alternatively use an old suitcase for storage. Add to the box, old Halloween costumes, scarves or jewelry that you no longer want or old dresses or shirts. Then you can make a run to your local Goodwill pick up other items for your child's dress-up box. You have now created an exciting gift for your child that didn't cost you very much money.
If you want to add one exciting costume, HearthSong Toys & Games
has some really wonderful ones. I really like the Fairy and Butterfly wings.
Have a great time dressing up. What are your favorite dress-up stories?
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