Why Small World Play Is Important For Young Imaginations

What Is Small World Play?

Small world play is imaginative play with small or miniature toys. This type of play encourages young children to use their imagination and create both real-life and fantasy scenarios. Children are also actively learning about the world around them in a safe, contained environment. Youngsters can use small world play to develop their social, physical and intellectual skills.

What Are The Benefits Of Small World Play?

Language Skills

When kids are roleplaying, they are talking aloud and using their vocabulary! Children can imitate what they've been hearing from the adults and even older kids around them. You may notice little ones using bits of vocabulary they've picked up from their favourite fictional stories.

Social Skills

Through small world play, kiddies learn how to play collaboratively, communicate effectively, share toys, and delegate roles. If they end up disagreeing, resolving issues helps to nurture empathy, awareness of others feelings, and what the consequences may be.

Emotional Understanding

Small world play is fantastic for emotional growth and development. Kids can learn to be aware of, and communicate, what it is they're feeling. Anxieties, worries or qualms can be shown through the safety of a character they've created from their toys. They can develop their own unique self-expression too.

Intellectual Development

Small world play is a fantastic educational resource as it teaches children about appropriate behaviour and rules within their own life, but widens their understanding of diversity and different cultures. This can be seen with small world play sets, such as hospitals and fire stations, for example.

Physical Development

Surprisingly, small world play even helps physical development. Playing with miniature toys or small characters nurtures kids spatial awareness, fine motor skills, dexterity and coordination.

Small World Play Toys

CollectA

Bigjigs Toys were proud to welcome CollectA in 2019. CollectA is the world's largest manufacturer of toy animal replicas. CollectA animals are superior in both their design and intricate paint details.

The CollectA animal collection currently boasts over 560 toys that cover dinosaurs, wild life, farm animals, horses, sea life, cats & dogs, and more. CollectA are the perfect small world play toys as they're exactly like the real things, but in a miniature size!

Our Top CollectA Picks

If your little one is in their own little world playing with a toy farm, the CollectA Horse is a beautiful horse figurine. Delicately hand-painted, this toy horse is perfect for pretend play and looks like a nice piece of decor when playtime's over. For horse-mad kids, we also stock a beautiful range of deluxe CollectA horses.

Dinosaur lovers will adore the deluxe CollectA T-Rex Dinosaur! CollectA has used the help of famous UK palaeoimagery to create the biggest dinosaur line in the world. This Jurassic fella even comes with a moveable jaw and is on a 1:40 scale - very impressive!

There's no need to be afraid of this CollectA Great White Shark! This incredible fish comes with a very realistic-looking open jaw. Excellent for raising awareness of endangered sharks and playing in an environmentally-conscious way.

Do you have any small play ideas you're keen to share? Let us know over on our social media channels!