Why should children improvise?

Why should children improvise?

Walk onto a playground or listen to children playing at recess and you will find superheroes in flight, in battle, saving the world. It may be something that you are used to seeing, but we shouldn’t take this imaginary play for granted. Why do young children enjoy spending so much time in imaginary worlds? And why is it so good for them to do so? And, perhaps, most importantly, how can we encourage more children to explore in this way? 

Hopefully, we all know by now that play helps children learn. Imaginary play is something that has become more and more rare with children today and this should be reason for concern. Why? If we dig a little deeper, we can find that scientists have developed many studies where they encourage children to explain different scenarios or solve a variety of problems that have no “real” solution. What they have found is that children who were reported to be better at pretending could actually reason better than those that were not encouraged or allowed time for imaginary play. Children who were allowed time for pretending were better at thinking about different possibilities. When your child is allowed to play pretend, they are allowed to imagine the world differently. They are allowed to test out different theories and endings to stories they have heard time and time again. Through this play, children develop the ability to recognize and form patterns to behavior and predict data. Does this all sound very scientific to you? That’s because it is! Besides the social aspects of play, there are many studies that demonstrate the mathematical and scientific benefits of play. One only needs to listen to children deeply involved in play and they can hear sand at the beach or weeds in the backyard becoming lands of magic providing all the necessary ingredients for secret potions. The great news is, in an improv class, children don’t need any of these materials. They learn how to make these ingredients appear and how to imagine using them. The outcome can be anything. Imaginary play is at the core of what improv with young children is.

Children who take improv classes learn how to explore single moments and heighten them. They learn how to turn their impulse to say, “no” into a “yes, and.” Children who take improv not only use their imaginations to create worlds out of nothing, they also train their imaginations to think positively. Being in an improv class encourages children to be a part of an ensemble. This ensemble engages in activities that allow every member to learn how to support each other. This support, in turn, allows every member to feel safe taking risks and exploring new ideas. When you participate in an activity where one of the mottos is, “Every mistake is a gift,” you slowly begin to look at the world differently. This is the power of improv. 

In a world where children want to play on screens and with toys that make noise, we feel that we must also create space for activities that build trust, confidence, the courage to take risks, and the ability to see the world differently. In our improv classes, we hold this belief at the forefront of what we do. The power of a child’s imagination must be cared for and celebrated. We must protect our children’s ability to think and dream and we hope that by taking an improv class, we are doing just that - providing a space where dreams, imagination and joy can be put first (even if it is early on a Saturday morning!).