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First Friends
Doll Play Holds Valuable Life Lessons
By John W. Lee
In fact, doll play is one of the very first indicators of the ability for imaginative play. One of the first bits of make-believe child development experts see is a very young toddler "feeding" their baby or stuffed animal.
Creating Intimacy
Child development psychologists Dorothy and Jerome Singer of Yale University note, "Early opportunities to play with dolls afford children that chance to practice the vital human capacity for nurturance and for giving selflessly to others. We can hope that more and more boys can take advantage of such pretending games. As modern society evolves, an important feature of intimacy between adults may involve the sharing of nurturance and caretaking – one of the most sublime of human experiences. And it all starts with doll play." Dolls Beyond the Toddler Years
As they age, girls look for ways to see what it's going to be like as grown-ups. Around age 4, the Madeline ragdoll, which has to this point been a baby or sister to the young child, is set aside for her more "grown-up" poseable Madeline role-play doll or other fashion dolls. 
Role-play or fashion dolls help little girls work out what they can and want to be when they grow up. You see them creating figures from "real life" and acting out scenarios that those "real" people would find themselves in personally and professionally. Children really enjoy this type of trying on the adult world and adult roles for size.