Kid Scoop
Dress Up and Child Development: Why Role Play Is Important
Although we have heaps of princess dresses, costume jewelry, aprons, crowns, and wands on hand, my daughter has never showed much of an interest in them.
I wondered if she would ever enjoy playing dress up, but the other day, she came downstairs for lunch dressed in her Cinderella gown, a tutu, bracelets from wrist to elbow, an purse on her arm, and a crown atop her head.
Over accessorized much?
Though we had never pushed her to play dress up, I’ve read enough to know that having those items on hand was a good idea should she ever want to try them out, as playing dress up is a healthy part of child development.
In the article How Playing Dress-Up Shapes Your Child, child psychologist Dr. Laurie Zelinger explains that dress up, “fosters the imaginative processes, and allows for play without rules or script. Dress up allows for experimentation, role play and fantasy.”
Though you can easily pull together random items from around the house to help your child explore his or her imagination, it’s nice to have a few costumes to add to the mix.
Here are my favorite items to stock your dress up collection…
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3 Comments
angela commented on Feb 01 12 at 10:24 amWe LOVE dress up around here. I need to get more gender-neutral/boy things. Poor Dylan ends up in strange melds of princess costumes at times ;)
Practical Parenting commented on Feb 01 12 at 11:25 amYes, dress up us such an important part of growing up! And when the boy chooses the tutu? That’s great too! All part of learning about someone else’s worldview :)
Elizabeth commented on Feb 02 12 at 11:51 amWith a theatre arts background, I LOVE dress up! Give me a feather boa and some white gloves and I’m a happy girl. Oh, and my girls seem to enjoy it too! =)
FYI, we’ve bought a couple dresses by Play Wonder and have been really pleased with the quality compared to some others.
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