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Baby Doll Games

Dramatic play is an opportunity for young children to incorporate reality into their personal world through pretending. This type of play contributes to the intellectual and emotional development of a child and helps her develop language skills and imagination. Dramatic play is similar to a performance or theater production, but has no script or pre-arranged direction. Children naturally engage in dramatic play when in a safe environment with toys that mimic real-world items. This includes pretend food, child-size furniture, recreations of household environments and a variety of other scenarios recreating a traditional adult world. Baby dolls are often a part of the pretend scenario and children enjoy imitating the caregiver role they often see adults taking.

Domestic Games
- Children enjoy imitating domestic scenarios because it gives them an opportunity to play the adult role in familiar situations. Playrooms and classrooms with dramatic play areas often feature miniature plastic kitchens, nurseries and sitting areas. Children are able to tend to their baby dolls, feeding, clothing and putting them to sleep. To encourage your child to play domestic baby doll games, provide toys that are modeled after the items in your home.
Professional
- Young children are naturally interested in the career roles of adults. Children frequently talk about what they want to be when they grow up and are able to act out these roles through dramatic play. Modeling a dramatic play area after a restaurant, hospital or child care center gives kids an opportunity to experience professional adult situations in a safe way that is understandable to them. They can play games such as taking their doll to the doctor, teaching dolls in a school setting or working as a service person in a restaurant. Provide a variety of dolls so children are able to interact in ways different from the traditional baby-caretaker role.
Traditional Games
- Children can play traditional multi-player games with their dolls. When a child is young, her imagination is vast and things that bother older kids and adults are not an issue. A young child can play musical chairs or board games with baby dolls, even though the dolls are not capable of responding as another person would. The child takes on the imaginary role of each of the doll participants in the game, turning the frustration of playing alone into a creative, rewarding experience.
Other Games
- If given the space and freedom, children are able to play for hours with baby dolls. Most kids are able to think of plenty of games and scenarios, but might sometimes feel unmotivated. If this occurs, suggest creating a tea party for the dolls using water as pretend tea. In this scenario, children also engage in water play, a rewarding sensory experience for young children. Another idea is to join art and dramatic play by creating clothing, toys or bedding to use when playing with baby dolls.

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