What if this cardboard box could fly? How imaginative play boosts your child's brain

There’s inexplicable joy in watching your child stack one box on another, and exclaim that it’s a tower. That’s on some days.  Other days, it can be a lighthouse, where he can spot imaginary ships, or at least for Dubai-based Lily Shey, a corporate communications professional. As she explains, “No doubt, screens have so many games and are creative, but somehow my son, who is six, just enjoys the cardboard boxes lying around the house. And we welcome that in relief, it reduces the stress of constantly monitoring screen-time,” she says.

That’s also where storytelling begins — not through apps or social media, but in the traditional way, with a sprinkle of curiosity, a little bit of mess, and the age-old magic of What if? “Look at it as an opportunity to encourage storytelling, and fuelling their imagination. And there are so many options just lying around the house, so that they don’t resort to the screens out of boredom,” explains Victoria Lauren, a Dubai-based psychologist.

Why it matters: The power of pretend

When a child pretends a cardboard tube is a telescope or a dish towel is royal robes, they’re not just having fun, they’re building cognitive flexibility, emotional intelligence, and storytelling skills, explains Lauren.

It helps them approach problems differently: For instance, figuring out how to build a dragon lair out of sofa cushions, takes planning and experimentation. Dubai-based Mahi Singh, a homemaker is always amused to see her child earnestly sit with plans and maps on how to build cushions into a ‘cave’ in the room. “He now knows, how to stack them in such a way that they don’t topple,” she says.

Moreover, when children play ‘pretend’, they enjoy different role-playing and fun perspectives. Such unstructured play teaches them to trust their ideas, and also a chance to invent stories and scenarios, that improve vocabulary and narrative thinking.

And the most satisfying part about it all, it’s that you don’t have to break the budget to get any toys. You can just look around the house and get them started.

Asking the right questions

Want to light that creative spark? Start asking What if?

• What if this box could fly?

• What kind of door does a dragon’s cave have?

• What would our living room look like if it were underwater?

“Children are wired for imagination,” Lauren says. “They just need permission. Hand them old blankets, cardboard, tape, and markers — then stand back.”

Start with cardboard

Nothing beats cardboard for pure creative potential. It can be a castle turret one day, a race car the next. Let your child lead the design — resist the urge to perfect it. Don’t worry about aesthetics, it’s about helping them learn to think beyond what they see. Give them scissors, paint, and space to figure it out.

Lauren adds, “Encourage storytelling as they play. Let their imagination be wild, as absurd as it can. The goal? To show them that their ideas are enough. That play doesn’t need to be productive. It just needs to be theirs,” she says.  Say yes to their ideas. If they say, “This is my spaceship,” ask, “Where are we going?”

Don’t correct, don’t redirect. Let them break the rules of physics. Imagination isn’t neat. It’s delightfully chaotic — and that’s where the chaos lives. “Don’t give them a reality check, just as they’re getting into the excitement of playing, just go along with it,” she says.

There are so many ordinary objects around the house that can help them with storytelling.

Storytelling tools already in your home:

Blankets and sheets

Perfect for building forts, caves, or tents. They can also become capes, robes, flying carpets, or magical cloaks. Drape a blanket over chairs and you’ve got an instant hideaway.

Kitchen utensils

Dubai-based Tulika Das is half-exasperated and half-amused when her children decide to take over the kitchen, raiding the kitchen cupboard and marching away with spoons and ladles, that somehow oscillate between swords, magic wants, microphones or potion stirrers. “Once they played this intense game, where they played aliens and pretended that our old jars were some sort of control panel,” she says.

Egg cartons, cereal boxes and bottle caps

Das now gives old egg cartons to her children, along with old pots. It’s kept right outside the house, and the children use it freely, sometimes imagining themselves as saviours for a village.

As Lauren explains, your job as a parent isn’t to orchestrate— it’s to observe, support, and join in when invited. Say yes” to their ideas, offer new prompts when they’re stuck ‘What if the vacuum was a time machine?’, and most importantly, make space for boredom. That’s when creativity kicks in. In  a world overflowing with screens, a little imagination might be the most valuable thing they can play with.