How Does Dramatic Play Affect Social Development?

Dramatic play is important in a child's social development. It enhances her imagination and helps her develop her own personality and identity. Play helps children to learn how to assert themselves in different roles, which can help them in their adult life. Participating in dramatic play is natural for children and should be encouraged.

Dramatic Play

• Children can participate in dramatic play with other children, adults or by themselves. By using their imaginations, they place themselves into a different role and can pretend to be a different person, in a different time and in a different place. This pretend play is important in a child's health and helps him to live a well-adjusted life later in adulthood. Dramatic play is different for children of different age groups, and gradually becomes more complex the older they get. A child may first start out playing in the sand by themselves and pretending to use the tools in the sand to build things. As children get older they start to assign themselves roles and their pretend play can become much more elaborate and specific.

Academic

• In a school setting, children are often engaged in pretend play with each other. This teaches the children how to develop rules, boundaries and teaches cooperation with one another. Children will typically recreate real-life experiences or mirror experiences they see in their own lives. While involved in dramatic play with others, children are encouraged to interact with one another, thus improving their language skills and communication. By learning to interact with other children, developing rules and by assigning roles to one another, they are learning how to interact in group settings and how to respond to other people.

Family

• Pretend play can help children understand the different roles in a family dynamic. By acting out the different roles in a family unit, the child is able to better understand how others experience life. Pretending to be mommy or daddy who goes to work or cooks dinner, the child is seeking to understand the world of the adults in their lives. Parents can also learn from their children's play time by seeing how their child perceives a parental role. Children can learn emotional regulation and empathy through acting out different roles in the family, and this may help them understand how their own actions affect other people.

Therapy

• Using dramatic play in a therapeutic environment can be very helpful for therapists. The therapist will engage the child's imagination and let him play out certain roles and situations. By observing his behavior, the therapist is better able to understand how the child views the world and people in his life. This then opens up the door for the therapist to engage the child in conversation and help him work through fears, agitation and sadness.