What your child actually means is that they have been engaged in role play, and the dressing up area is currently a post office. So what exactly is role play and how does it help your child?
Types of role play
Role play, also referred to as imaginative play, is an important activity in most pre-schools, nurseries and schools. Children literally take on roles and act out scenes and characters. Your child's nursery or school is likely to have a home corner or dressing-up area to help children play in this way. You may find that at times this area changes into, for example, a shop, travel agent or garage, so that your child can play a variety of roles. Your child is also likely to have opportunities to play with dolls, farm animals or small figures. These types of toys are sometimes called 'small world toys'. Children play in a slightly different way with this type of equipment. Instead of striding in and being the character themselves, they tend to take on a directing role and move the characters around accordingly.
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