Topic One – Dramatic play

In ELC 120 we learned that play is the preferred learning style of most young children. Many theorists including Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner and Erickson, have commented on the significance of play in supporting all aspects of development: social, physical, language, imaginative, cognitive and emotional.

In ELC 120, we were introduced to Parten who has categorized social play according to children’s interactions with materials and each other: unoccupied, on-looker, solitary, parallel, associative and cooperative play. (Dietze & Kashin, 2012, p. 55-56). We are also familiar with Piaget’s play stages of functional/sensori-motor play, symbolic/dramatic play, and games with rules. Smilansky has built upon Piaget’s stages, including constructive play into social/dramatic play to acknowledge children’s constructive process and “sense of “what will happen if I do this” (Dietze and Kashin, p. 54).

Take a look at Dietze and Kashin, Chapter 4, pp. 97-98 to see a more expanded description of theorists and their beliefs about the importance of dramatic play. We see that through dramatic play children are exploring concepts that they are attempting to understand and also representing the experiences that they have had in the real world. I have seen children who have been spoken to harshly, line up dolls and really give them a piece of their mind in a loud and angry voice. They are trying this on and trying to understand it from the perspective of the person in power.

I worked with a young girl who had open heart surgery at 2 years of age, who was very impacted by this experience. When we set up the dramatic play centre as a hospital, this child re-enacted procedures and tried to make sense of her experiences. It took many hours of play before she was able to join us for a field trip to the local hospital and it was a very clear example of the power of play to heal and to enable children to represent their feelings and understand their experiences.

Dramatic play of course is also full of joy and energy, excitement and a feeling of power and strength. Vygotsky described children as being able to access more sophisticated skills and abilities from within play than in the real world. Children demonstrate emotional regulation, empathy, cooperation, and language and thinking skills within play that are not as easily accessible outside of play. For example, a child who had a great deal of trouble being still and focused in reality, was able to lie motionless for up to 10 minutes after he had been stuck with an imaginary ray that required  him to be still until he was saved by the superhero. (Dietze and Kashin, p. 98)

Dramatic play also has a number of stages that progress as children grow and mature. The two – three year old begins by simple pretend play that might include feeding a bottle to a doll or putting a toy puppy to bed. The materials are used realistically... a bottle is used as a bottle and a bed is used as a bed.

As children mature they begin to use objects to stand for other objects, being able to hold an idea in their mind and imagine the object is part of their play. For example, imaginative play can be using a broom as a fire hose or a block as a sword. This kind of play can be either solitary play, with children speaking for characters and acting out an imaginary scene on their own or socio-dramatic play when children interact with a group and use materials together, developing play scripts spontaneously as the play progresses. For example, “Okay, you be the Mom and I’m the Dad and we’re going to Disney land”. “No, I want to be the Dad”. “Okay, we’re both the Dads and we’re taking our kids to Disneyland”. Children use language to negotiate the roles and the action, to show the ability to see another’s point of view and to regulate their emotions so the play can continue. This type of play also requires thinking and planning as children represent their understanding of what ‘going to Disneyland’ means and how one might have to get there.  As skilled early childhood educators, we are able to determine a great deal by observing the ordinary moments of children’s play. We see the language, cognitive, social, emotional, physical and creative skills in use and also the interests and curiosities of each child. (Dietze and Kashin, p.100-101). As children grow and develop and have experience with socio-dramatic play, their play scripts become more complex and their ability to play with other children and keep the drama going becomes more sophisticated. (p.102)

Dietze and Kashin give a good description of the stages of dramatic play and the progression of skills used in the preschool ages. (pp. 103-105) They underscore the importance of dramatic play experiences for young children’s development and future academic skills. “Vygotsky maintained that at 4 or 5  years, a child’s ability to play creatively with other children is a better gauge of future academic success than any other indicator, including vocabulary, counting skills, or knowledge of the alphabet” (Bodrova & Leong, 2009, in Dietze and Kashin, p. 105).

Children need encouragement, modeling, other children and opportunities to develop their dramatic play skills. Dietze and Kashin note that in low quality childcare programs, complex dramatic play does not always occur (p. 106). This is an interesting and distressing fact but one that we can prevent by ensuring that we provide programs with the “equipment, furniture, and props and an environment that would support and provoke children’s dramatic play” (p.106). Recognition of the value of play and the learning that is uniquely meaningful to each child within play allows the Early Learning and Care program to resist the pressure to focus on isolated academic skills. There is increasing pressure right now to maximize children’s readiness to learn in kindergarten but there is not as much understanding that it is within play that this learning occurs.

The Role of the Early Childhood Educator in Play

Early Childhood Educators have many roles that impact both the experience of dramatic play and the complexity of the dramatic play in their programs. Children are motivated intrinsically to play out scripts and themes that are relevant and meaningful for them and it isn’t the educator’s job to determine or lead the play. It is our job however, to observe the play and provision the environment with materials that will connect to the play scripts and deepen the play. A well-chosen open ended question can expand the play and build other opportunities into the play. For example, when a grouping of chairs was put into a childcare environment after a number of children had been talking about trains, a group of children got ‘on the train’ with one child wearing the engineer’s cap and with a child by his side blowing the train whistle. The children would get on and off the train but the script was quite limited. An educator approached the play and asked if she could buy a ticket for this train and wondered, “Where does it go?” These simple questions caused a flurry of action as children went to the writing centre to create some tickets and now there was a ticket seller and discussion of where the train was going.

Educators then put maps and suitcases into the drama centre and children re-enacted their experiences of taking trips, packing suitcases, looking at maps and travelling to destinations that were exciting and interesting to them.

Educator’s involvement is based on skilled observation to notice the concepts being explored and knowledge of how varying materials could stimulate and extend the children’s play and learning. Opportunities for literacy are abundant and children are often eager to make tickets, signs, prices, menus, doctor’s reports, etc., depending on their play script.

Involving the children to reflect on their play and to identify if there is something they would like to create or add to their play is also very important. Creating pedagogical narrations of children’s dramatic play and sharing these narrations with the children can be a powerful and effective way to support children’s reflection and to discuss what they would like to do next.

When we set up a dramatic play centre to support the interests of a group of children, we recognize that children may move in and out of the play and that other children may become interested and may interact in a variety of ways with the materials and play scripts. For example, in the train scenario, some children were involved in complex dramatic play, together taking family trips, packing suitcases and arriving at destinations. Other children were interested in associative play, sharing materials but not the play script. They enjoyed dressing up and getting on and off the train but did not join the main group in their more complex play.

Dietze and Kashin discuss the difference between designing play spaces based on children’s interests and using a theme-based approach. This is an important distinction to make as the theme is usually decided by the educator and not connected to the children’s play. (p. 110) Current research and modern approaches have taken us away from the theme based approach to an emergent approach which is based on observed interests and play scripts of the children in your program. It is within this emergent approach that deep and complex dramatic play develops. Take a look at what is going on in your program and think about whether it is theme based or emergent planning. Are the props and materials added because they are connected to the interests and curiosities of the children or because the practitioner has chosen what she wants to provide?

On Page 111, Dietze and Kashin include a list of questions to ask yourself as you observe the children in play. Use these questions as you try to determine the connection of the materials to the children.

In summary, Early Childhood Educators provide children with the time to develop their play scripts and develop complex play, the interest in children’s play that demonstrates its value to the children, the materials that support and extend children’s dramatic play ideas and the open-ended questions, pedagogical narrations and facilitation that deepen and bring complexity to the play.

In the article, “Chopsticks and counting sticks”, Bodrova and Leong talk about the current dilemma of children being exposed to mainly realistic and closed ended toys (to be used in only one way), to a great deal of screen time (computers, videos, TV, etc), and to fewer opportunities to engage in dramatic play. This has resulted in children who don’t have the dramatic play skills that were evident even 10 or 20 years ago. This article describes a process of supporting children who typically have an immature level of play to play at a more mature level.

 Bodrova and Leong provide numerous excellent ideas that help children to use more open and less realistic materials in their dramatic play, to expand the types of roles that could be part of play, and that help children to discuss and plan their play.

I have found using stories is another way to support children to engage in complex play.  Carter and Curtis discuss using story dramas on pages 146-148. Take a look at this information to see how you can stimulate children to engage in dramas that grow out of their ideas and art.