Ready, Set, Playsets!

Action Figures and Playsets Benefit Creative, Communication and Social Skills

by Madeleine Buckley View Bio

Madeleine Buckley

Madeleine Buckley is an assistant editor at Adventure Publishing Group, where she writes toy reviews for The Toy Insider, a site that provides parents, grandparents, or any gift-giver with the most up-to-date insight on toys and children’s entertainment year-round. The Toy Insider also publishes an annual Holiday Gift Guide, which appears in Family Circle magazine. Buckley contributes to The Toy Book, the leading trade magazine serving the toy industry. This keeps her up to date on all the top toy trends and all things play!

Action figures and playsets both represent play in its most classic, analog form. From posable superheroes, to doll houses, to kitchen sets, these broad categories encompass toys fueled by imagination and screen-free play.

While they cater to a wide range of ages and interests, all action figures and playsets provide similar play benefits for kids. First, they provide a great alternative to screen time and promote imaginative play which develops creative skills. Whether the playset and figures hail from a fictional universe or are miniature versions of our adult world, kids will combine their real-world knowledge with their imaginations to create stories, scenarios, and adventures with these toys.

When playing with action figures or playsets, kids also have an opportunity to expand their communication skills. They use the vocabulary and concepts they have observed in the world around them to explain the action figures’ decisions and movements in the world or within the playset. This allows kids to practice elements of storytelling and communication.

Another benefit of many playsets, especially larger ones, is the opportunity for multiple kids (or kids and adults) to interact and play with them together. Working hand-in-hand with communication and creating a shared imaginative play scenario lets kids practice important social skills.

Here are some tips to promote and encourage these benefits as kids play with action figures or play sets:

1. Ask questions. As kids play with a figure or playset, ask about what they are doing, and how the different figures may be thinking or feeling. Without directing the story, show interest and allow kids to tell you what is happening in their imaginary scenario. This allows them to practice communication and vocabulary.
2. Play along with them. If a kid often plays with his or her playsets alone, take the opportunity to flex your own imagination muscles and join in. This requires kids to practice taking turns, compromising, and communicating while playing. These are all important for developing social skills.
3. Encourage combining playsets and figures. There is no rule stating a playset can only use the figures that came with it. Promote imaginative play by encouraging kids to let their superheroes, animals, dolls, cars, and monsters all interact.

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