What a difference a year makes! Halloween this year is busier (and literally had our hands full of treats) compared to last year where then 6-month old Riri merely observed from her stroller and couldn’t be bothered with the sweets.
This year had seen more action – she became a mermaid, a fairy, a kitten, a lady bug and a pumpkin (again). She did all roles with much gusto. At this stage, she enjoyed playing dress-up and admiring herself in the mirror. On my previous post, I shared about how Riri, like most toddlers her age, loves looking at her own reflection and how you can take advantage of this developmental stage by teaching them the body parts as well.
Halloween, I’ve observed, is good for children and it’s not just because of the treats! Did you know that when a child wears a costume, the brain is at work? Imagine what goes in your child’s brain when in costume – whether it’s a cowboy hat, a cape, a sword, or a mermaid tail, this makes them assume a certain role and in the process allow for dress-up play.
Below are the developmental benefits when a child engages in dress-up play:
Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are being enhanced when you let you child put on a costume. Let your child button up the top, zip up the pants, put on the crown, arrange the wig and tie up the shoe laces.
When a child engages in dress-up play, the large motor skills, on the other hand, are being developed when they wave a wand, jump like a frog, swing a sword and run like a superhero.
Imagination
Through dress-up play, a child can explore a different identity by using their imagination. The possibilities to who, what and where they can be are endless.
This is a break, too from the usual screen time activity where their imagination isn’t given that much room to take flight.
Brain Development
Riri is still too young to act out scenes or recall from memory the things that she have heard and seen. If you’ll closely observe children acting out a certain character, notice how the use of vocabulary stemmed out from something they have probably watched before. You’ll be amazed how their brain has retained this information. Notice, too how they react to a certain scenario. That is is where problem-solving skills will be at play.
Not only that, dress-up play can boost self-esteem by knowing that they can be anything they want to be.
This was what Halloween 2017 looked like in photos.
That’s it. For next year, Riri will have a free reign on what she wants to be.
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