The two sisters growing up in the Newlin household found nary a block in sight. There were also no Legos, or tinker toys. At that point there was no such thing as STEAM, but I can assure you that if there was, the concept didn’t make it through the front door.
The cornerstone of our play, and therefore the cornerstone of our entire childhood, were dolls. There were Care Bears, Cabbage Patch, Rainbow Bright, My Little Pony, and Strawberry Shortcake. Of course, there was the granddaddy of them all – Barbie.
I didn’t know a girl growing up in the 80s who didn’t spend quite a bit of quality time with Barbie. Sure, she was an unrealistic portrayal of beauty, and yes she didn’t do a good job representing anyone who wasn’t white, ultra feminine, and able bodied. Heck, I treasured the one Barbie I had with brown hair because my beauty ideal has never been blonde.
But she was the biggest game in town. Every time I went to a friend’s house, we spent an insane amount of time setting the scene parameters, creating our locations, and then getting down to play. During that play, we explored all sorts of topics, some way out of my depth. Dolls were my way of understanding a world of complex natures, sticky situations, and strange social norms.
In all of my travels through doll play, I did meet up with some boys. But when you played dolls with a boy, it was tucked away. They almost always said they didn’t like playing with dolls, but when push came to shove, they were excellent playmates.
Today it’s much more acceptable for boys to play with dolls. Times have changed, but not enough. I still find myself writing a blog post that brings up the fact that dolls are a solid part of my son’s upbringing, like that’s novel. It shouldn’t be.
Because, frankly, doll play is much too valuable to be gendered. The cognitive benefits and learning opportunities they provide are too impressive to not be utilized. In fact, they are so impressive that I believe dolls should not only become central to every child’s free play, but should also find a stronger foothold in all primary curricula.
8 Benefits of Doll Play
Dolls have had a special place within every culture across the globe, and dolls have been found dating back between 3000 – 2000 BC. There must be something there, right?
I’ve put together 8 reasons why all parents and teachers should be stocking their play shelves with these powerful toys:
Dolls Promote Empathy
Want to increase your child’s emotional intelligence? Give them a doll.
Researchers have looked at the brains of those who play with dolls, and they can see differences in areas that are involved with empathy. So it appears that the kind of play that requires children to breathe life into a doll – by imagining their motivations and probable reactions, is the kind that wires them to be better able to recognize and respond to the emotional state of others. Check out this article at Frontiers, for a deeper dive into the study.
Think that’s no big deal, or that empathy is just one of those “soft skills” that don’t translate into much more than being a nice person that’s a good friend? It’s true that empathy will drastically improve your chances of forming and maintaining lifelong friendships. According to experts, those friendships influence your mental and physical well being, so that alone makes doll play worth the effort.
But empathy is also at the heart of strong leadership, innovation, and collaboration. All the boxes you want to check off for professional success. And don’t take my word for it, check out Forbes with the nod to empathy.
Dolls Spark Imagination & Creativity
Let’s break down what it takes for a successful session of doll play. Before taking any action with the dolls, children have to figure out the place in space and time that these dolls inhabit. Then they have to decide who each of these dolls are, how they fit into the established setting, and what each doll’s relationship is to the others. You will likely see a flurry of activity, as little hands grab pillows, blankets, boxes, and any props necessary to enhance the set.
From there, most children devise of specific scenarios within this created world that they would like to explore. They must agree on all of these things before inhabiting the minds of the dolls and improvising. When issues arise, there is often a “time out” where some type of clarification or problem solving must occur.
I mean, wow.
I often saw children so involved with negotiating the world building aspect of doll play, that they never reached the point of improvisation with the doll. And they were perfectly satisfied with that! It is about being the architects of a reality – one they are in control of.
Dolls are Great Teaching Tools
I look back on my teaching days and I have to admit that I’m a little bummed that I didn’t use dolls more. Sure, we used a lot of puppets, and I had the kids read to stuffed animals, but there was so much potential there.
I won’t make the same mistake twice. With Rémy, I’ve been using dolls for a whole host of learning activities. For a closer look at what we’ve been doing, and ideas on how to use dolls throughout a curriculum, jump ahead.
Dolls Allow Children to Nurture and Care
If you’re ever looking for evidence that caring for others increases your self worth, look no further than toddlers. All they want is to be helpful, albeit in their own, slightly unhelpful, way. Showing care means that they are capable people with the skills necessary to do things for others.
When children dress their dolls, feed them, or put them to bed, they are not only mimicking parental behavior. They are demonstrating their ability to be depended on. They are exercising some level of control, something they have little of throughout the rest of their day. And they are practicing skills that they will use throughout their lives.
Dolls are Therapeutic
Years back, when I was reeling from a divorce, I put together an art show. All of the pieces I made were about Barbies, so I decided to make a video of my friend and I playing an adult version of dolls. The scenes we acted out all related back to what we were trying to figure out about relationships and work. It was better than any therapy session I’ve sat through.
Play therapy has helped children work through grief, trauma, attachment, and behavioral issues. Dolls are central to that work. They give voice to big emotions and scary ideas at times when a child is too vulnerable to speak and own the words themselves.
The effectiveness of all this is on full display on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. He used puppets, which I would argue are just hollow dolls, to express the types of big feelings that kids need to explore. And something about those puppets made everything feel safe.
Dolls Help Children Explore Social Structures
You may look at it as comforting, or stifling, but all societies are run through a complex system of rules, structures, and scripts. In order to navigate this world, a child needs to start recognizing these elements, and incorporating them into their interactions.
Dolls offer the perfect opportunity to explore all this. That’s because doll play is a study in human interaction. Children can test out different scripts they’ve heard, ultimately landing on ones that get the job done. And they can explore what happens when someone functions outside of the social norms.
Doll play is also an ideal starting point for probing into ideas around race, culture, and gender. The wide range of doll options now afford parents and teachers the chance to expose children to dolls that were once far too difficult to get ahold of.
Dolls Help Children Explore Personality
Ever wonder what it would be like to possess completely different personality traits than the ones you’ve been working with? I think about it every time I’m in a room filled with strangers and can’t seem to manage the fine art of mingling. What would it be like if I could just run up to anybody and start talking away?
With dolls, a child can explore any personality trait they want, try it on for size, and see how it impacts decisions and relationships. Through play they are able to adventure through the human psyche, a journey that will prepare them for interactions with a wide range of people.
But it will also help them parse out aspects of their own personality. What characters do they identify with? What aspects of themselves do they see in each doll? This level of self-awareness will serve them in every aspect of their lives.
Dolls Create Storytellers
The importance of storytelling cannot be overstated. It is story that teaches us, persuades us, entertains us, and ultimately defines us. So I am of the opinion that we should be focusing quite a bit of attention on nurturing storytellers.
Telling a good story is an essential skill, one honed by hours and hours of practice. If you want to know what storylines create interest and drama, or what characters entice, you’ve got to play with plots, lots and lots of plots.
It’s as if dolls were specifically made as a tool for budding storytellers. They allow children to play with all of a story’s variables, and try out multiple variation of the same theme.
My Favorite Doll Options
Now that you’re excited for the powerhouse play that dolls are going to give you, let’s talk about the amazing options you have out there. And there are so many options – it’s overwhelming!
When picking up a doll for your child, give some thought as to what you are hoping to accomplish, and how the doll fits into all the other play elements that you have going on. Try to picture the type of imaginative play that a child would engage in when using the doll.
I’ve given this all quite a bit of thought (the woman writing the post on dolls has thought about dolls – what?!), and I’ve rounded up some of my personal favorites, and how I see them fitting into Rémy’s play.
First Dolls
These are the dolls for the first few years of a child’s life. They are soft, snuggly, more about comfort than play, but will transition into a child’s first imaginative play experiences.
Haba Snug-up Dolly Louisa (this was Rémy’s first doll)
Manhattan Toy Baby Stellas:
Toddler Baby Dolls
These kinds of dolls are often involved with care play, family play, and can often become a close friend:
Eco Baby Dolls:
Melissa & Doug Dolls:
Therapeutic Dolls
These dolls were designed specifically for children to express their feelings, memories, and ideas. The set I’ve listed may seem abstract, but there’s so much freedom of expression within that abstraction.
Alma Therapy Dolls:
Dolls that Can Populate Different Worlds
Doll play set on the moon on Monday, and digging into family dynamics on Tuesday, these dolls can easily represent different types of characters:
Making Dolls a Part of Your Curriculum
Open doll play will certainly make an appearance in our household, although how much of it will be entirely left up to Rémy. If he gravitates to using certain types of dolls and engaging in specific types of play, I will try my best to provide him the materials that allow the play to flourish.
But I also expect to use dolls as a teaching tool, more so than I ever did when I was in the classroom. As I go along, I will be assessing when and how dolls should be used to support his learning. Here’s a list of ideas for integrating dolls as a starting point:
Math:
- Have your child teach math concepts to a doll. Although math was never my strongest subject, when I pretended to be a teacher, I would teach my dolls all the math concepts we were learning in school. It actually helped me.
Having children teach what they’ve learned helps reinforce the steps within the process, and also helps them identify places where they may need to go back and shore up their knowledge.
Language Arts
- The language arts version of the above task is having your child read to their dolls. I’m not a huge fan of having children do a lot of out loud reading, as it slows them down and decreases comprehension. But there are times when reading out loud can help a child understand the rhythm of the writing, and can increase motivation to read.
A child has spent a good part of their life having someone older and wiser reading to them. So it really boosts confidence to assume a vastly different role by reading to someone who isn’t there to correct or instruct, but simply listen.
- Use dolls to introduce a host of new vocabulary words. This is a technique often used by those teaching ESL (English as a second language) students.
I’ve already started utilizing dolls for this. When learning about body parts dolls are perfect. When learning about place in space, like over, under, on top, or inside, dolls are also perfect.
- Have children act out scenes from books that they love with their dolls. The performance will help them investigate some of the nuances, and fill in some of the gaps of what they were reading.
- Get your child to produce plays, where they are the writer, director, set designer, and actor. You can join in too, helping bring their vision to life, but I recommend trying your best to stay out of the vision-making part of the process.
Social Studies
- Use dolls from different cultures as a jumping off point for investigations into that culture. Good questions to launch dozens of research projects: How are the dolls used? How are the dolls made? And the ultimate question for older children: How is the doll an expression of this culture’s beliefs and history? Deep stuff to uncover there.
- Dolls can be a great starting point for discussions about race, gender, disabilities, and consent. Many of these elements may pop up during play naturally, and would be excellent opportunities for probing questions. But you can also set up play scenarios so that children are confronted with the topics that you want to explore.
- Help your child understand basic economics by setting up play around trade, bartering, business practices, or supply and demand. If you are part of the play experience, you can nudge it into directions that reveal big aha moments about how our economy functions.
Art
- Handmade dolls have been around since the dawn of man, and it may be worth taking a look at the myriad of ways people have crafted these toys. Then provide the materials and tools necessary to create your own dolls. This is not only a great artistic endeavor, but it will allow your child to think about their own play needs and make design choices based on those needs.
Some places to start:
· Doll Crafts: A Kids Guide to Making Simple Dolls, Clothing, Accessories, and Houses, Laurie Carlson book
Emotional Intelligence
- Help your child work through any of those big moments in life that may be difficult to process. Perhaps it’s the death of a pet, or a car accident that left them feeling vulnerable and scared. Pull out the dolls, and see what happens. Retelling and eventually reframing the story of traumatic events into something manageable to deal with is natural and helpful. You can be completely hands off, or help give words to some of what you see.
- Prepare for situations that may be difficult or uncomfortable by practicing with dolls. Because of bad past experiences, Rémy struggles with going to the doctor. Maybe “struggle” is an understatement. But my plan is to help him through our upcoming visit by doing some doctor doll play. He’ll be able to see the scenario play out again and again, and will feel more prepared going in.
- If your child is having a hard time communicating emotions, especially negative ones, allow a doll to be a surrogate voice. As the doll character, let them speak their truth to another doll or to you. It may make difficult conversations a bit easier to conquer.
- Teach specific skills around self care or care for others. I remember a babysitter taught me the correct way to brush hair using Barbie dolls. She systematically walked me through each step and then allowed me to practice.
- Strengthen levels of resiliency and problem solving by giving your child parameters for play, then allowing them to set up, build, and start playing. Once play is established, throw in a giant monkey wrench. Perhaps you change the established rules, or mix up the setting, or remove one of the essential characters. Doing this pushes your child into problem solving mode in order to figure out what to do next.
Just make sure you tell your child that there will be sneak attacks on their play, and be prepared to walk them through any frustration or anger with established strategies.
- You can use a doll as a buddy for difficult tasks. We’ve been using one of his dolls to help with brushing teeth. Rémy is not a fan. But he is more comfortable and excited if his doll is included, and having it there has made it easier to reinforce the steps again and again even if he isn’t willing to follow them every time.
Ideas for Integration
What have you been doing with dolls? What have you seen that works well for teaching purposes?
Let me know, so that we can create an even bigger and better resource!
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