Dramatic play benefits children in all developmental areas. As children engage in fantasy play, they re-live experiences by symbolically imitating what they observe around them. Through children's interpersonal relationships within socio-dramatic play, opportunities arise for in-depth thinking such as imagining, recalling, reasoning and negotiating (Vygotsky). By exploring life's situations from the community and home, a child can re-create an identity that fulfils personal emotional needs and desires.
The compelling urge to become physically powerful and socially dominant is fulfilled when a child adopts the role of a superheroine such as Princess Xena .While a traumatic family event can be played out as therapeutic drama when a child transfers inner feelings of rejection or hostility towards dolls or soft toys. The need for reassurance can be provided in dramatic play when a child knows it is acceptable to take on the role of being a baby, so that any sense of displacement, caused by the arrival of a new sibling within the family, is eased. Children have the freedom to be active and spontaneous in dramatic play, because, as Eden says, "it can be undertaken without regard for external goals and sanctions."
In one of my first classes of drama (I was in a class with Peter O’ Driscoll) I participated in a game called ‘fruit salad’ where their was just enough chairs for every body. The chairs were placed out in a circle and one of the chairs was in the centre of the circle. Each person was given a name of a fruit and one person stood at the centre and called a fruit and everybody who had that label had to get up and sit on another chair. However one person would have to sit at the centre and call the name of another fruit. In this game, student’s ordinary identities are suspended as they are given a new name and a clear role, which involves, in turn, a clear set of actions. For the duration of the game, students should only perform the demands of the role. The chair at the centre becomes particularly significant. It symbolises something from those chairs in the circle in the circle, not because of its appearance but because of its isolation, that is to say, its position in space. It is the chair that isolates a child from the group, the chair that is to be avoided at all costs; but if a student ends up in it, she can briefly experience the thrill of being in control, of determining how the game is next to proceed. It is therefore not only a lonely chair but also a powerful chair, analogous in this sense to the throne of a king. As soon as the game is concluded, however, the chair and the space around it lose their symbolic meanings and hence their power.
According to Joe Winston and Miles Tandy games can provide ‘important signals that drama time is about to happen. They immediately signal a change in the use of space, a change in the energy level and a change in the usual classroom relationships’. Dorothy Heathcothe believes that “ True drama is not about ends; it is about journeys and not knowing how the journeys may end”.
Children learn about language in all its forms in the dramatic play environment. Talking is vital to dramatic play. Children talk more in this than any other classroom setting. The meaningful context in which talking occurs and the natural requirements for effective communication are ideal for supporting language development. In addition, play props provide good opportunities for children to learn new words, such as stethoscope, coupons, etc. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of helping young children learn the language arts through play is that children learn to talk by talking, and read by reading. Doing them is the best way of learning these skills.
Dramatic play also provides meaningful opportunities through which children can be introduced to reading and writing. Food cartons in a grocery store theme are wonderful sources as are signs in a traffic theme. A "let's go grocery shopping" sequence of dramatic play could have children wishing to try to write their own shopping list. The interest may yield only scribbles, but the interest remains.
To conclude, Drama plays such and important part in our lives and we do not even realise it. I feel that it is a terrible pity that adults stop playing. I think the following sums up the importance of drama in our lives. We do stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.
Bibliography
Bolten, Gavin (1979) Towards a theory of drama in education. Longmans
Eden, Susanne (1990). Dramatic Play in Education. Scarborough: Nelson Canada.
Hudgson, John (1981) The uses of drama. Redwood Press. Great Britain.Toye and Prendiville (2000) Drama and traditional story for the early years. Routledge
Vygotsky, L. (1976). "Play and its Role in the Mental Development of Children."
Winston, Joe and Miles Tandy (1998) Beginning Drama 4-11, Fulton.