Playing dress-up is not just for Halloween. We have all played dress up whether, I grew up in India so I used to try to play with my mom’s sari and pretend to be my teacher and grab my blackboard and teach my grandma how to read and write since she came from a generation when women’s education wasn’t really important. As children we have all done this, whether just went into our mother’s closet and tried on her dresses or tried on mom’s heels and clopped around the kitchen or put on our dad’s oversize coats and pretend to fly with a cape. Dress up is a natural method of play that allows children to live out their imagination, whether they want to be a pirate or a firefighter or a princess. While children can turn almost any article of clothing into a grand costume, dress-up kits offered at Growing Instincts make pretend play even easier and help build important academic skills, from mathematical thinking to physical coordination.
And although it may appear to you as just play, when your child dons that cape, crown, or pirate’s eye-patch, his brain is developing in more ways than you can imagine. As early childhood educators know, play is the work of the child, and children benefit cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally through dress-up play.
