Realizing that all your children’s toys can be wonderful teaching tools, helping to engage them in developing essential life-skills, can open up a whole new realm of interactive play experiences for you and your child.
Dolls come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. They also come in both male and female versions. Using these “toys” to role-play with your child can assist them in learning “positive” ways to communicate, and aid in social and educational development.
1)Dolls as babies.
There are many skills that can be taught to children by playing together with them, and their “baby dolls.” Showing your little one how to rock, cuddle, be gentle with, bathe, feed, change and just “love” the baby, are all ways to begin to teach future parenting skills.
2)Indirectly Demonstrating your love for your child.
Parents can communicate love indirectly, by observing their child playing with their dolls. When you see your little one hugging, or kissing the doll, you simply make a statement such as “Aw, I see you love your baby too!” or ask “Do you love your baby as much as I love my baby?”
3)Anatomically correct dolls.
These are helpful in teaching your child about the difference between boys and girls, and learning the appropriate names for their body parts. Many parents shy away from teaching very young children the correct words for sexual parts of their bodies. These is good information that suggests that teaching your child these terms can help them develop a healthy sense of sexuality, and give them more self confidence and self assurance, when it comes to sexual identity, later in life.
In addition, experts in the field of sexual assault highly encourage all parents to help their children learn the words for their sexual organs. This helps your child to protect themselves against would-be predators, and also gives them the ability to us correct language, should they ever become victims. A parents best defense against sexual predators is an educated, confident child.
4)”Barbies” and other “action figure” type dolls.
Barbie can have an entire world of her own. She can go to school, have a career, drive a car, and act out many social situations that children will eventually face. Role playing with Barbie, Ken and other dolls of this type, opens up an entire new world of play opportunities for boys and girls.
Contrary to cultural and social beliefs, playing with dolls does not make young boys effeminate. Instead, when a father can role play with his son how to care for, and love a baby (with baby dolls), how to treat a member of the opposite sex (with Barbie dolls) how to use correct terms for the different parts of his body, and how to care for those parts appropriately, a father and son can experience a whole new realm of play and learning possibilities, that were not available to many men growing up in the past.
Giving both girls and boys access to a variety of dolls- using them as teaching and communication aids- can be a very positive and valuable part of your child’s growing up years.
