The popularity of play sets for kids - play kitchen sets, pretend vanity tables and potty training chairs, among others - underscore the role play does for a child's growth. Having toys like these available for children, in very particular ways, open new doors for their continued learning and development.
Russian scientist and psychologist Lev Vygotsky helped outline the concept of "the psychology of play." In it, Vygotsky said that children, by playing, develop a sense of abstract meaning apart from physical objects in the world. It gives them a chance to be somewhere without really having to leave the seat of the child's pants or diapers.
Through play, a child is able to make use of their imagination. A play kitchen can give them the chance to be able to play as a parent preparing food for the children. The toy becomes what Vygotsky called a 'pivot.' Children, in their early state of mind, still have trouble separating thoughts and ideas from objects. Toys are called the 'pivot' because they are where the turn from literal object to imagined experience takes place.
By living through life vicariously through these games, children are able to grow emotionally and mentally. Play serves as a child's way of making sense of his environment, in the way that the kids' play kitchen in our example gives way to the more practical real-world understanding of what happens in a kitchen, how work there is done, and the importance of what takes place there in everyday life.
