How Imagination Develops in Young Children

Tip—Children generally figure out who the tooth fairy is sometime between ages five and seven.

Helen Neville, pediatric nurse advisor, points out that imagination is not only fun, it allows children to practice daily activities (like doing dishes or vacuuming), practice managing feelings (pretending to be mad at a doll), try out adult roles (pretending to be a store clerk or an astronaut), improve language, and to practice problem solving. That’s a pretty impressive list of benefits.

Tools—Neville says that all children go through the same steps in learning to use their imagination, but some move along faster than others. The following excerpt from her imagination timetable is taken from Neville’s new book, Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years.

18 mo. to 2 yr.

• They pretend to be themselves doing something different—like pretending to be asleep.
• They pretend with realistic toys—such as pretending to talk on a toy telephone.

2 yr.

• They act out daily events, such as going to the store.
• They commonly act out difficult events, such as saying “bye-bye” to Mommy or getting a shot at the doctor’s office.

3 yr.

• They pretend that one thing is something else. A stick becomes a magic wand or a row of blocks becomes a fence.
• They can imagine things that are entirely in their heads without props or without having done them before. “I’m a fire fighter.” “We’re in a spaceship now.”
• They imagine a set of connected events. “They go to the store and get milk and bananas. They go home and make banana milkshakes.”

4 yr.

• Imagination is now triggered from within. When he was two, he played “train” because the toy train was there. Now he thinks, “I want to fly an airplane. I’ll go get some Duplos and build one.”
• Boys tend to make up stories about boys and girls most often make up stories about mothers and girls.
• 4’s imaginative stories are often violent. This was true long before television. Dishes break and cars crash. People fall and get eaten or otherwise killed.

More characteristics of children’s imagination at different ages are available in Neville’s book. Next week we’ll look at how to encourage your young child’s imagination.

You’ll find more practical tips you can use right now in Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years by Helen F. Neville, B.S., R.N.

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