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Therapeutic Discussion Topics for Role Play for Kids

Therapeutic role play can have a strong effect on a child's ability to cope with both past and future events. Role play can also act as a springboard from which a therapist or other adult can begin a discussion about an important topic with the child. For example, a child who has been through a traumatic experience can discuss how she felt during each step of the role play.

  1. Reenacting an Event

    • A basic type of therapeutic role plays involves reenacting an event. For example, a child who has been through a terrorist attack may be able to express his emotions more easily after acting out exactly what happened, with all of the details. Other people (such as a therapist or a friend) can play the other people in the scene. Going through this process will help the child visualize what happened again and work through her emotional reaction to what happened.

    Acting Out the Future

    • Kids are often afraid of a future event, and this fear may stop them from successfully moving forward. For example, a child may be scared of a conversation she knows she will need to have, or of a public situation she will find herself in. In this case, the child can use role play to overcome these fears. Children can act out how they would like the situation to go. In doing so, they gain more control over the situation and can increase their optimism toward it. This can lead to a discussion about how they can make sure that the event goes as they would like it to go.

    Becoming Someone Else

    • Children may also gain from acting like someone they are not. This can apply to two different types of role plays. In the first, the child acts like someone else in a given situation. For example, a child who is having a conflict with his father may act out his father's part in the role play situation. In the second, the child takes on an attribute that he doesn't feel he has, such as an outgoing personality. In either case, becoming someone he is not allows the child to explore his emotions and to break out of his preconceived notions about himself. This can lead to a discussion about how it feels to be someone different, or how different people might react to the same event.

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