Fostering Imagination in Children: 10 Simple Everyday Ideas

A sofa cushion becomes a boat, a blanket transforms into a cave, and a favorite stuffed animal suddenly embarks on a grand adventure: children often don't need much to create their own worlds. They combine familiar objects, experiences, and stories to create something new.

Imagination is more than just a pleasant pastime. It helps children try out different roles, mentally play through possibilities, and develop their own solutions. Parents can encourage imagination without preparing an elaborate learning program. Free playtime, open-ended materials, stories, and simple questions are often enough.

In this guide, you will learn how imagination develops in children, why it is important, and what everyday ideas you can use to support it without pressure.

How does imagination develop in children?

Imagination does not emerge overnight. It develops alongside language, memory, and the ability to visualize something that is not currently visible. For example, a child must be able to understand that an empty cup in a game can be filled with tea, or that a building block can suddenly represent a phone.

The first simple "as-if" actions often appear in the second year of life. Children feed a doll, pretend to drink, or give an object a new meaning. Later, individual actions turn into longer play scenes: stuffed animals get voices, roles are distributed, and collaboratively invented rules determine the plot. Research on early social pretend play shows how toddlers gradually build such play sequences together (Fantasia, Moncalli, and Bello, 2024).

In preschool, imaginary worlds usually become more complex. Children can simultaneously know that a cushion is a cushion, and within the game, treat it like a dragon. This ability for non-literal and symbolic thinking is linked to other cognitive processes, such as understanding symbols, perspectives, and non-real possibilities (Weisberg, 2015).

How a child expresses imagination is individual. Some tell elaborate stories, others build, paint, move, or play quietly by themselves. Imagination doesn't have to be loud or particularly extraordinary to be meaningful.

Why is imagination important for children?

Imagination allows children to think beyond what is immediately visible. In play, they can change situations, try out different solutions, and develop actions without them actually having to happen. A cardboard box becomes a spaceship, a doll becomes a patient, and a stuffed animal becomes a brave companion.

During collaborative role-playing, children adopt different perspectives. They consider what a character might know, feel, or want, explain their ideas, and react to the suggestions of others. Pretend play is therefore associated with symbolic thinking, perspective-taking, and mentally exploring alternative possibilities (Weisberg, 2015).

Feelings and everyday experiences can also be addressed in play. A stuffed animal can be afraid of kindergarten or need comfort. This way, a child can look at a familiar topic with some distance.

Scientifically, however, caution is important: many positive correlations are well described, but it has not been proven for every developmental area that pretend play alone is the cause (Lillard et al., 2013). Imagination therefore does not have to be a training program. Its value already lies in self-determined experimentation, storytelling, and creation.

Fostering imagination: 10 ideas for family life

1. Allow time for free play

Free play means that the child decides what and how they want to play. There is no fixed outcome and no task that needs to be completed. It is precisely this openness that creates space for their own stories.

Parents can provide a calm environment and step back instead of constantly guiding the play.

2. Don't immediately resolve boredom

"I'm bored" doesn't have to be immediately answered with a new offer. If there's no ready-made activity, a child often starts looking for possibilities themselves.

A small impulse like "What could this box be today?" can help. After that, the idea can be left with the child again.

3. Rediscover everyday objects

Open-ended materials can be used in different ways again and again. Cardboard boxes, blankets, cushions, cups, paper towel rolls, or fabric scraps can represent houses, vehicles, costumes, or landscapes.

It is important that the objects are safe and age-appropriate. Small parts and long cords should only be used by younger children under supervision.

4. Ask open-ended questions

Questions without a predetermined correct answer stimulate new thoughts. Instead of "Is that a house?", questions like "Who lives there?", "What's behind the door?", or "What could happen next?" are suitable. The answer should not be corrected or replaced by a supposedly better adult idea.

5. Invent stories together

Joint storytelling works during a walk, while traveling, or before bedtime. An adult starts with a sentence, and the child decides how it continues.

Three random terms like "cloud," "key," and "seashell" can serve as a starting point. Logic is less important here than the joy of unexpected twists.

6. Turn stuffed animals into characters

Stuffed animals can talk, show feelings, and have adventures. A familiar companion makes it easier for many children to get into role-playing. A short impulse is enough: "Where does your stuffed animal want to travel today?" or "What special ability does it have?". After that, the child determines the plot.

7. Build your own fantasy worlds

Building blocks, cushions, figures, and natural materials give inner imaginings a visible form. A blue cloth becomes a river, stones become mountains, and a cup becomes a tower.

If there is enough space, a fantasy world can also exist for several days and continue to grow.

8. Combine painting, crafting, and storytelling

Ask your child to create an imaginary animal or an unusual place. Then you can discuss together what the figure is called, where it lives, and what it experiences. Instead of evaluating the result, genuine interest helps: "Will you tell me something about your figure?" This way, imagination remains more important than a "correct" picture.

9. Incorporate natural materials

Sticks, leaves, stones and pine cones do not have a predetermined role in play. They can become magic wands, food, animals or treasure maps.

Experiences in nature also provide impressions that may later appear in stories. Only safe materials should be collected, without damaging protected plants or habitats.

10. Participate without taking over the game

Parents can join in, but they should remain open to the child’s rules. Questions such as “Which role should I play?” or “Would you like to hear an idea?” can help without taking control of the story.

Some children enjoy playing together, while others prefer becoming absorbed in play by themselves. Both are perfectly acceptable.

Why stories create pictures in the mind

When children listen to a story, they do not see finished characters or settings. They combine words, voices and sounds with their own knowledge, memories and feelings. This means that the same “dark forest” can look different to every child.

A study on narrative listening showed that areas associated with processing meaning and visual imagination may also be involved. The meanings and images created differed according to the listeners’ experiences and prior knowledge (Saalasti et al., 2019).

Activity was also observed in regions associated with language processing, narrative comprehension and mental imagery when children aged three to five listened to stories (Hutton et al., 2015).

These studies do not prove that every story automatically improves imagination. However, they demonstrate that listening is an active process.

 After a story, open-ended questions such as “How did you imagine the place?” or “What might happen afterwards?” can encourage new ideas. However, the child may also simply listen and enjoy the story.

Bedtime stories, audio plays and audiobooks for children

Bedtime stories, audio plays and audiobooks for children can introduce characters, places and events that later become part of free play. An adventure they have listened to might inspire a child to build a spaceship or create a veterinary clinic for soft toys the following day.

Calm stories with a manageable plot and a reassuring ending are usually most suitable before bedtime. A short story can also become part of a consistent evening routine. You can find further suggestions in our article about calming bedtime routines for babies and children.

Audio plays combine language with voices, music and sound effects. These audio cues bring a scene to life without fully determining what it looks like. For example, the creaking of a door reveals that something is opening. Every child can decide for themselves what the door and the room behind it look like.

Research involving children aged 9 to 13 shows that sound design and spatial audio can influence emotional responses and, in some cases, the mental images children report experiencing (Cuadrado et al., 2020). As the study examined older children, no firm conclusions for preschool children can be drawn from it.

After listening, a child can:

• draw a scene,
• re-enact the story using figures,
• invent a different ending,
• continue telling the story or
• turn a supporting character into the main character.

These ideas should remain optional activities rather than compulsory tasks.

Why age-appropriate content is important

Children develop language, attention and emotional regulation at different rates. Two children of the same age may therefore respond very differently to the same story. Age recommendations can help with initial selection, but they cannot replace considering the individual child.

Suitable content introduces new ideas while remaining understandable in its overall structure. Too many unfamiliar words, complicated sentences, rapid jumps in time or a very large number of characters can make it difficult to follow the story.

Research into sentence processing in children shows that existing grammatical knowledge plays an important role in how linguistic structures are processed (Knoll et al., 2012).

Volume, threatening voices and sudden sound effects can also influence the experience. Parents can observe:

• Does the child listen with curiosity and attention?
• Do they become restless or frightened?
• Do they want to take a break?
• Does a particular scene remain on their mind long after listening?
• Do they want to talk about what they have heard?

Good content can be exciting, but it should not leave a child feeling overwhelmed for an extended period. Pausing or stopping is always allowed.

Encouraging imagination with plushies and role play

Plushies are familiar companions for many children and can take on almost any role during play. They visit the doctor, travel to the moon, resolve an argument or search for treasure.

Parents can incorporate everyday situations without turning every game into a structured educational activity. After all, a soft toy should also be allowed to travel into space on a flying pancake.

After a bedtime story or an audio play, the child can change what they have heard: What does the character experience the following day? How would the story have ended if their own soft toy had been there?

An interactive soft toy connected to audio content can also provide a familiar starting point. The important thing is to leave room afterwards for the child’s own roles, ideas and actions.

What parents should avoid

Too many instructions can restrict imagination rather than encourage it. Adults should not take complete control of the game, unnecessarily correct unusual ideas or turn every activity into a learning exercise.

In imaginary play, a fish can fly and a castle can stand on a cloud.

Constant evaluation is also unnecessary. Instead of saying “That’s perfect” or “That isn’t what it looks like”, try asking interested questions:

• “How did you come up with that idea?”
• “What is happening in your picture?”
• “What do you like best about it?”
• “Can you tell me more about this character?”

A small selection of open-ended materials and unstructured time is often more helpful than an overwhelming range of activities.

Frequently asked questions about children’s imagination

At what age do children develop imagination?

The first simple acts of pretend play often appear during the second year of life. During the preschool years, these frequently develop into longer stories, roles and jointly agreed rules.

Development varies between children and may be expressed through storytelling, building, drawing or movement.

Is a vivid imagination normal?

A vivid imagination is generally not unusual during childhood. Children can understand that an object is something different in reality while simultaneously accepting its new meaning within a game.

Imaginary characters or friends may also temporarily become part of this world.

Can audio plays encourage imagination?

Audio plays provide language, voices and sounds but leave many visual details open. This allows children to form their own individual mental images.

However, they are not an automatic form of imagination training. They are one possible source of inspiration that every child may use differently.

How much should parents join in?

There is no fixed rule. Some children want a parent to play an active role, while others prefer playing alone.

Parents can allow the child to assign them a role and then follow the child’s rules. When their involvement becomes more disruptive than helpful, it makes sense to step back.

Conclusion: imagination needs space above all

Parents do not need an elaborate development programme to support their child’s imagination. Screen-free play in particular gives children the opportunity to develop their own ideas and actively explore their surroundings. Open-ended objects, stories, unstructured time and genuine interest already offer many possibilities.

What matters is not so much the material itself, but the freedom to reinterpret it again and again. A cardboard box can simply be packaging – or it can be a spaceship, a house, a cave and a boat all at once.

Anyone wishing to encourage imagination can listen, ask open-ended questions and take the child’s ideas seriously. At the same time, play should be allowed to exist without a specific purpose. It does not always need to produce a visible outcome or achieve a defined learning objective.

Listen to stories and invent your own adventures with Lenabo

Lenabo combines age-appropriate audio content with familiar soft toy characters. When the Lenabo Smart Speaker is inserted into a Lenabie, the system recognises the character and plays the corresponding stories, audio plays, melodies or educational content.

After listening, the Lenabie can become a character in a new story. Children can re-enact a scene, continue an adventure or invent an entirely new imaginary world.

In this way, the interactive soft toy combines listening with a familiar object that can subsequently become part of screen-free, independent play.

Sources and further reading

Fantasia, V., Moncalli, F. & Bello, A. (2024):
Shared Construction of Social Pretend Play Sequences at the Kindergarten. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 20(2).
A study examining the shared development of pretend play and role play during the nursery years.
Further reading: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39118999/

Weisberg, D. S. (2015):
Pretend Play. WIREs Cognitive Science, 6(3), 249–261.
A scientific overview of pretend play, symbolic thinking and the imagination of unreal possibilities.
Further reading: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26263228/

Lillard, A. S., Lerner, M. D., Hopkins, E. J., Dore, R. A., Smith, E. D. & Palmquist, C. M. (2013):
The Impact of Pretend Play on Children’s Development: A Review of the Evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 1–34.
A review of the potential effects of pretend play on children’s development and the limitations of the available research.
Further reading: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22905949/

Hutton, J. S., Horowitz-Kraus, T., Mendelsohn, A. L., DeWitt, T. & Holland, S. K. (2015):
Home Reading Environment and Brain Activation in Preschool Children Listening to Stories. Pediatrics, 136(3), 466–478.
A study of preschool children’s brain activity while listening to stories and the importance of the home reading environment.
Further reading: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26260716/

Saalasti, S., Alho, J., Bar, M., Glerean, E., Honkela, T., Kauppila, M., Sams, M. & Jääskeläinen, I. P. (2019):
Inferior Parietal Lobule and Early Visual Areas Support Elicitation of Individualized Meanings During Narrative Listening. Brain and Behavior, 9(5), e01288.
A study examining how individual meanings and mental images emerge while listening.
Further reading: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30977309/

Knoll, L. J., Obleser, J., Schipke, C. S., Friederici, A. D. & Brauer, J. (2012):
Left Prefrontal Cortex Activation During Sentence Comprehension Covaries with Grammatical Knowledge in Children. NeuroImage, 62(1), 207–216.
A study examining the relationship between grammatical knowledge and the processing of linguistic structures in children.
Further reading: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22584229/

Cuadrado, F., López-Cobo, I., Mateos-Blanco, T. & Tajadura-Jiménez, A. (2020):
Arousing the Sound: A Field Study on the Emotional Impact on Children of Arousing Sound Design and 3D Audio Spatialization in an Audio Story. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 737.
A study examining the emotional effects of sound design and spatial audio in audio stories for children.
Further reading: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00737/full