Doll play

[Vermillion]

Does anyone happen to have any links to articles or book suggestions on the importance of doll play for young children? I recall reading something about it in You are your Child’s First Teacher but I’d like to read into some more if there is anything out there.

Last night DS found bag of pipe cleaners I had picked up somewhere or another and wanted to play with them. We ended up making a family (our family) of pipe cleaner dolls and I was thrilled to see how excited he was about them! Usually he is so stereotypically boy (trucks, cars, etc) so I was pleased to see him excited about something other than Hot Wheels.

It was fun watching him play, acting out how he sees all of us. Mostly loving play but a little nagging coming from the mom doll… I am sure this has great benefit to him, I read once about the therapeutic aspect of doll play for kids and would love to read more about it.

Also, I’d like to move past the pipe cleaner dolls and maybe make him some mini cloth dolls. Does anyone have any ideas on where I can start with that? I also found some cute bendy dolls in the Rosie Hippo catalog that look like they’d be right up his alley, but I’d love to make him something if possible.

[melissa17s]

Yes, I have read that imaginary roll playing with dolls is important too. I have seen it both in Waldorf literature as well as conventional. Toy making by Freda Jaffe has a section on dolls and age appropriate play and I think A Child's Year does, too. If I think of more books that are less craft oriented, I will post them, but right now my brain in tired.

[annettemarie]

One thing I have both read and observed in the Waldorf parent-child playgroup we went to was that the teacher's treated the doll's with reverence, and the children did too. For example, at clean up time, the teacher would not just put the doll away. She would lift the baby, wrap her in a blanket, and put her to sleep in the doll cradle.