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In a world of rapidly advancing technology, children are facing screens every day in areas of play and education. Children of previous decades were known to be extremely imaginative; creating their own toys like paper dolls and footballs, thinking up ways to play badminton in an alleyway, and experiencing wonderful stories and movies… all in their minds. My, how times have changed!
Now, entertainment is sought from iPads, smartphones, televisions and computers. Parents occupy restless children with a screen in front of their face, and all is settled. Adults boast to one another about how clever their children are when it comes to being able to navigate around a smartphone.
But once the children of this generation are given building blocks, they become uninterested. They do not know what to do with the blocks. A handful of those children immediately see the blocks as parts of a robot, a monster, a dragon, a tower or a bridge. And those are the children with what we call imagination.
The power of imagination plays an important part in the achievement of success. What we imagine in our minds can prompt us to excel, because if we can’t visualise our ambitions in our brains, how are we to put it into reality? Being able to imagine and have ambition opens great opportunities for your child in the future.
A developed imagination enhances creative abilities, and this paves the way for the child in the aspects of art, music and language. Through these tools, children learn to express themselves, their feelings and thoughts. This gives them an outlet to pour out what they are going through, and this is ultimately beneficial for children who find it difficult to express their feelings verbally.
Not only that, a vivid imagination helps a child to remember things efficiently. If a child listens to story and does not imagine, he or she will most likely forget the story in a week or so. But children who play out the entire scene in their heads will have a strong memory of the images that flashed through their minds when the story was being told. This applies well in their studies when they start school. Imagination assists greatly in remembering facts, and subjects like history or geography will be of no problem.
In conclusion, a child left to their own imagination will learn to think for themselves and ponder upon life’s big questions. This opens up their minds to greater things and creates in them a curiosity to learn. Once a child is discouraged from having an imagination, he or she will most likely live a rigid life that puts no importance on discovering new things. So encourage your child to imagine, and he or she will soar to greater heights of learning.
