Role-playing is crucial for the development of a child's future social skills. 
In Gowen's nine stages of symbolic play, we can observe the progressive development of a child's role-playing abilities.
Children need to understand the characters they portray, the objects they use, and the actions they perform. They also need to recognize and relate to the relationships between different characters.

By using hand puppets and small felt motifs from themed teaching aids, characters are made more tangible. Children can see them directly and interact with them, which enriches their imagination of various scenarios.