New book explores pretend play activities for child's holistic development

New Delhi, Aug 28

A new book released on Saturday offers parents more than 60 ‘pretend play’ activities to impart knowledge and skills to children during their early development years.

“The Power of Make-Believe: Parenting through Pretend Play”, written by entrepreneur-author Shouger Merchant Doshi, urges parents to opt out of the “parenting rat race” and allow their child to reveal their own “strengths and interests” in due time.

For the unversed, ‘pretend play’ is a form of symbolic play where children use their imagination to assign roles to inanimate objects or people.

“My inspiration for this book was driven by my yearning to find out what life skills can I inculcate in my child – and my answer was very apparent that it was confidence. The only way I knew how to instil confidence in him was through exposure to great vocabulary, lots of books and pretend play,” Doshi said.

She added that pretend play has a direct correlation to improved brain functioning and a positive impact on higher achievement and education.

“I thought it would be prudent just to put down all the activities in a structured format for moms and also list a plethora of books that could help them in discussing various topics of concern with your children,” she said.

According to publishers Penguin Random House India, the book also busts a lot of myths around “perfect parenting and perfect motherhood”.

“It shares several tips, tricks and hacks to make the lives of mothers, and parents in general, a little less chaotic – and we all know how life-saving that can be!,” they said in a statement.

Former journalist and lawyer, Doshi is also co-founder of “The Story Merchants”, which manufactures children’s educational products based on pretend play activities, and “The Pinwheel Project”, an events company making children’s products and services accessible across the country. PTI