As a parent you might never guess all the ways a good imagination benefits your child.
It helps a preschooler:
爸爸妈妈可能永远没办法意识到好的想象力对于孩子能有多大的帮忙。以下的建议适用于学龄前儿童：
Develop social skills 训练社交能力
As children play pretend, they explore relationships between family members, friends and learn more about how people interact. Playing doctor, they imagine how physicians care for their patients. Playing house, they learn more about how parents feel about their children.
孩子们在玩过家家的时候，可以增进家庭成员和朋友间的关系，还能学会不少人际交往的技能。譬如饰演大夫，他们可以体验大夫是怎么样照顾患者的。饰演父母，他们好了解爸爸妈妈对孩子的情感。
Imaginative play helps develop empathy for others. They become more willing to play fair, to share, and to cooperate.
过家家的游戏可以增加孩子对别人的认可感。孩子会更乐于公平角逐、推荐与合作。
Build self-confidence 树立自信
Young children have very little control over their lives. Imagining oneself as a builder of skyscrapers or a superhero defending the planet is empowering to a child. It helps them develop confidence in their abilities and their potential.
孩子子非常难支配我们的生活。让孩子假装是摩天大楼的建造者或者保护星球的超级英雄，他们就会自我感觉非常强大。这还会激起他们的自信心与更方面的潜能。
Boost intellectual growth 促进智商发育
Using the imagination is the beginning of abstract thought. Children who can see a king's castle in a mound of sand or a delicious dinner in a mud pie are learning to think symbolically. This skill is important in school where a child will have to learn that numerals symbolize groups of objects, letters symbolize sounds, and so on.
想象力是抽象思维的基础。无论是在沙滩上堆起国王城堡还是用泥团做出美味的晚餐，这都是孩子们在学习抽象思维的过程。上学后抽象思维的能力看上去十分要紧，譬如用数字表示一系列物体和用字母来表示语音等等。
Practice language skills 训练语言技能
Kids who play pretend with their friends do a lot of talking. This helps boost their vocabulary, improve sentence structure and enhance communication skills.
孩子们在和朋友玩过家家的时候会进行很多的交流。这回拓展他们的词语，提升他们的语言组织能力与交流的技能。
Enjoy reading books 享受阅读
To encourage your youngster's imagination, read to him every day. Books offer children the opportunity to visit other worlds and create new ones of their own.
要想增加他的想象力，就要让他天天阅读。书本可以让孩子们有机会接触其他世界，并且创造出是他们我们的新天地。
For generations children have enjoyed reading the story of Peter Pan because Peter takes them on fascinating adventures.
一代一代的孩子都非常喜欢阅读彼得·潘的故事，由于彼得将孩子们带入到一段迷人刺激的冒险经历。
