Train children's imagination and its benefits for brain development

Asking about the child's imagination at a glance

Do you often see your little one enjoying themselves with their toys? That is, the child's imagination is playing there.

The imagination of children is generally very limited compared to adults. Over time, imagination will be closely related to the ability to speak and become a tool for children to learn to understand conditions and existence in the environment.

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests that parents play more roles with their children in order to hone their imagination and creativity. To do this, of course, requires support from parents.

What is the importance of imagination and how to train it? For that, here are some things you need to understand about children's imagination:

What are the benefits of training a child's imagination?

Children's imagination is related to child development. According to dr. Herbowo Soetomenggolo, a child neurologist, child development is influenced by two things, external and internal.

External aspects include nutrition, disease, environment, and stimulation or stimulation. Now, practicing imagination or imagination is one form of stimulation.

Some types of stimulation include storytelling and drawing.

"When storytelling, the brain is active and children do not just listen but create imaginations. The brain activity of the storyteller and listener is the same. Children will feel and imagine what is being told, "explained dr. Herbowo when met in the Senayan area, South Jakarta (13/11).

Storytelling is closely related to fantasy and brain performance. Not only that, training the imagination or imaginary powers is also important for children with dyslexia because it can hone brain skills even better.

Exercising imagination can make children learn to solve problems or problem solving .

“When listening to stories, he will solve problems when listening to stories. After this it will be like this, then that. Learn problem solving also related to the intelligence of children, "he added.

How old should children have their imagination trained?

Childhood is a time when the imagination is developing very rapidly. This is a good sign because imagination is related to brain performance. However, at what age should a child's imagination begin to be trained?

Dr. Herbowo explained that there is no age limit to train children's imagination. Basically, from infancy you can train a child's imagination.

"From birth to kindergarten age, their imagination can be trained by storytelling or telling stories," he explained.

How do you train your child's imagination?

1. Storytelling

This is one way that is easy enough to train your little one's imagination. Herbowo said that when children listen to stories, their brains work very well.

Not only that, storytelling is also related to children's reading and speaking skills. "The ability to speak and language in children is closely related to IQ," he explained.

2. Drawing

Launching from Parenting, drawing can train children's imagination and fine motor skills by holding crayons or colored pencils. To increase the imagination of the child, you can ask him to draw the sun but not using yellow. This will increase the imagination of your little one and let him be creative.

3. Screen play

Screen play is also a way to hone imagination even with various notes. Doctor Herbowo explained screen play can be used as a place to train imagination if the child also imagines what is on the screen.

"But in practice, it may not be effective because children are more busy playing their gadgets than imagining their imagination," explained dr. Herbowo.

When you want to wear gadget as a tool to hone the imagination, make sure you are there when the child watches the video. In addition, you can also ask children about the videos they watch so that there is a two-way interaction.