BEYOND DISGUISE

Kids love dressing up and now that Carnival is approaching, the whole family can enjoy it together. But beyond the fun, dressing up is an activity that is always recommended for the little ones because they learn a lot of things about themselves and the world around them.

IDENTITY AND BOUNDARIES

When a child decides to wear a hat, or a clown's nose, or mummy's shoes, he or she is experimenting with his or her identity and that of others. Dressing up allows them to go beyond its limitsIt helps them to investigate their own abilities and also encourages their creativity. It helps them to investigate their own abilities and also encourages their creativity. Behind each character, behind a costume, there is a story that they can invent, stage and share.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SYMBOLIC PLAY

At around 2-3 years of age, children begin to have the ability to use symbols to represent objects that are not physically present. In other words, if they run down the hallway imitating a siren, you can be sure that they are firefighters performing a rescue. Costumes encourage this type of symbolic play in which they imitate adult activities. Symbolic play allows them to expressing reality as they understand it and modifying italso helps them to facing your fears: giving vaccines to the dolls is a classic of symbolic play.

With symbolic play, children can put themselves in the other person's place. This is a great tool for resolving conflicts, learning to negotiate and strengthening children's empathy. They know this very well in schools where they usually have a corner with costumes so that children can play and express themselves freely. As they grow, their capacity for symbolic play becomes more complex and sophisticated. It also helps the development of other cognitive areas such as memory and imagination, and playing helps them grow!

ACTIVE PLAYERS

Dressing up does not mean buying a costume and putting it on. Dressing up involves a whole series of decisions and favours an active attitude on the part of the children. First they have to decide what they want to dress up as, then how they are going to dress up and finally, we can help them to make their costume. There is nothing more satisfying for children than learning to do things for themselves.

If they are too young to cut their mask out of cardboard, they can always paint it. Encouraging children to be active protagonists is good not only for their emotional development, as it provides them with security and builds their self-esteembut also allows them to develop their skills and their dexterity.

THE ADVENTURE OF FREEDOM

After all this, you know, any time is a good time to dress up. But of course, Carnival is an ideal time for the kids to share with the adults all this fun and funky stuff. knowledge and adventures they get from dressing up. Carnival is a time for all of us to go a little bit beyond our limits and let ourselves go on an adventure. And remember, if so much freedom and excitement leads to a few bumps and bruises, you can always turn to Nosacalm products.