As a parent, we have all had this experience at some point. You buy an expensive toy for your child but they are more interested in playing with the packaging instead of the toy itself. Children take the box as an open invitation to imagine. They can spend hours creating new ways to use the box in their pretend play, literally thinking outside-the-box when they convert it into a house or a spacesuit. Recognizing the value of the cardboard box but perhaps missing the point of play and imagination, companies even started shipping boxes with printed templates for rocket ships, cowboy hats, and other activities.
Effecting Development
Imagination and play are essential for a child’s normal development. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who studied children’s psychological development, identified key features of children’s play and its role in later-stage creativity. The development of imagination in children is similar to the development of speech.
In speech, children first start talking to others socially which over time gets internalized to inner speech. This inner speech then helps in self-regulation in different situations. Similarly, when it comes to imagination, children first start with play – they use concrete objects and different social situations in pretend scenarios – which gets internalized into the purely mental process of imagination.
Connecting Play and Imagination to Creative Thinking
As children grow more mature, imagination paired with thinking in concepts leads to more sophisticated creative thinking, where they produce novel and useful artifacts. When either play or imagination is hindered during the development process, later-stage creativity gets impacted.
Unfortunately, there are signs that broader societal changes are making children less creative. Children’s unstructured play time has reduced by 14 hours per week since the 1980s. They are much more likely to participate in structured activities like piano or soccer than in play where their imagination can run wild.
Perhaps more worryingly, play involving imagination such as role playing has been replaced by long hours in front of digital devices and social media usage. Schools have also evolved in the meantime. With a strong focus on test results and an increase in academic content, teachers have little time to allow their students to engage in exploratory, playful work. As a result, student creativity scores have declined significantly over the last few decades.
Strategies to Involve Play and Imagination
So, what can parents and educators do?
Thankfully, there is a lot more awareness about the importance of play in child development and its role in learning. Here are three strategies to bring a more playful approach to exploring and learning:
Value Play and Creativity
Parents and educators need to recognize that play is an essential part of children’s development, which builds imagination and creative thinking. For younger children, simply join in their pretend play as they try different roles and different social situations. As children grow older, their imagination shifts to a mental operation and goes through the dreaded “why?” phase. Instead of dismissing children’s questions, adopt a playful mindset and engage with their ideas and questions even when they seem outlandish. A lot of creative ideas start off sounding ridiculous but eventually evolve into something useful. By respecting children’s ideas and engaging in dialogue with them you can help them discover hidden potential of their ideas, and instill a love of exploration.
Maintain Intrinsic motivation Using Play and Imagination
Standardized tests discourage learning for the pleasure of it, and push children away from intrinsic motivation. In current educational systems, there is little leeway from them, but the role of test scores should be downplayed so students don’t base their self esteem on them. Students should be provided with ample opportunities to engage in work that is not graded, which they can share with each other and tap into social and peer learning mechanisms.
Engage in Project-based learning
Project-based learning is a useful way to engage students in natural learning. However, educators need to be aware that not all projects are equal. Some work more as a playpen – a restrictive environment that doesn’t give opportunities for students to explore. What students need instead is a playground, where they can genuinely explore, make mistakes and learn from them, and collaborate with others when it makes sense.
Technology is rapidly transforming our society. Artificial intelligence and automation are taking away jobs that were once a staple and changing the nature of work itself. Looking ahead, future jobs are expected to rely much more on uniquely human skills – imagination and creativity – that are hard to replicate. And a key element to fostering these skills is the ability to play.
About The Authors
Pronita Mehrotra is the Founder of MindAntix, a company that develops tools and programs to bring creativity into schools and organizations. Her work focuses on the neuroscience behind creative thinking and leverages cognitive thinking patterns in ideation and decision making. She has participated in several global conferences and conducted creativity workshops for educators and leaders. Her work has been featured in leading publications like Harvard Business Review, edCircuit, Geekwire, ASCD and Education Week. MindAntix’s educational product was awarded EdTech Digest’s Cool Tool 2020 Finalist award in the 21st century skills category.
Gerardo Alvarez-Franyutti is the founder of Alfatti, an international advisory network that helps organizations maximize their potential. Previously, he held a variety of corporate roles in the US, Europe and Latin America. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and holds an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering.