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"Make believe" is key to early childhood development

Caillou is a typical 4-year-old child. At this age, role playing is as appealing as it is essential. By using their imagination, children can visualize doing things they have never done: they are empowered beyond their years and dare to try and discover new things. They can be invisible, invincible, big or small, cleverer, funnier, faster and stronger. Role-playing teaches children to cope with strong emotions like anger, sadness and jealousy and thereby accomplish feats they would never have thought possible.

Observing Caillou and following his example, children (and their parents) learn that using their imagination is an important, useful and valuable thing to do. Young viewers feel encouraged to imitate our little hero as they watch him go through various stages of development. At first Caillou relies on realistic props such as a doll house to invent a story and bring his imaginary ideas to life. But little by little, he is able to use more abstract, symbolic objects that bear no physical resemblance to the things he is imagining, but are realistic to him. After a while, a large cardboard box comes to represent a house just as well as the doll house did. Caillou shares his engaging, imaginative creations with his preschool viewing audience in every episode.

Why bother validating a game that children play instinctively? Because today, society does not value games of “make believe” as much as it used to. Children are encouraged to learn to play the violin, take dance or karate lessons, use the computer or watch educational television programs, in short, to develop their intellect. Parents often prefer activities that teach children, for instance, to recognize numbers and letters. By comparison, purely imaginative play may seem less "useful" for the child. Yet, developing a fertile imagination is fundamental to bringing up the next generation of inventors, artists and a host of other talented visionaries who will shape the world we live in. Moreover, role-playing has a number of beneficial effects on children: it makes them more sociable and cooperative, enriches their vocabulary, fosters more advanced cognitive development and improves their ability to distinguish between appearances and reality. While fun activities are generally good for children, developing their imagination remains key to their development. Here again, Caillou leads through example!