How role play can promote children's personal development?
Can you please help me with examples of how role play(pretend play, imaginative play, dramatic play) can promote children's personal development?
Role play (dramatic play) is a way for children to "try on" different roles in life. They might want to pretend they are the mom, or dad, the doctor or nurse, a firefighter or police officer, etc. Trying on different roles helps them extend their understanding of that role and their understanding of life. (Maybe they don't understand why they have to clean up their toys when it's dinner time, but when they try on the role of mom or dad and their friends refuse to clean up, they extend their understanding of the frustration mom or dad might feel when they refuse to clean up at home!) It may also help them to work through issues they have. For example, a child who is afraid to go to the doctor may become more comfortable with doctors by role-playing a doctor.
Role playing is a non threatening way of acting out future changes or past disturbances. For example, if a family is planning to move to a new house, the parents can pretend play that her doll's doll house is getting to small for the doll family. They can go to the toy store and search for new houses and bring a new house home for the doll family. They can talk about how much happier the doll family is in their new house.
If someone was hurt in an accident, the parents can pretend that they are going to the doctor and in this pretend play the doctor can make everything all better after doing some 'tests' and 'exams'.
References :
Teachers can change up dramatic play areas with simple things. I worked on a theme for pets and turned the up stairs of the dramatic play area of the classroom into a "rabbit's cage" and the downstairs into a groomer's salon. The upstairs only took a large box (for them to "burrow" in), food bowls, vegetables, a water cooler (a round one that looked like the one strapped to the wall in the actual cage), some netting on the outside walls to look like the cage, and two costumes for behavior management. We tried newspaper on the floor but the kids got newsprint on their clothes. The downstairs took a few aquariums, stuffed animals, brushes, a cash register with play money, some hand-drawn signs, and barrettes/scarves.
The kids took to both areas because it was such a change and they really loved it because the local pet groomer came to speak with the class. All it takes is a little creativity and the kids will have a ball.
References :
B.S. Child and Family Development
Certified Family Life Educator
Role play (dramatic play) is a way for children to "try on" different roles in life. They might want to pretend they are the mom, or dad, the doctor or nurse, a firefighter or police officer, etc. Trying on different roles helps them extend their understanding of that role and their understanding of life. (Maybe they don't understand why they have to clean up their toys when it's dinner time, but when they try on the role of mom or dad and their friends refuse to clean up, they extend their understanding of the frustration mom or dad might feel when they refuse to clean up at home!) It may also help them to work through issues they have. For example, a child who is afraid to go to the doctor may become more comfortable with doctors by role-playing a doctor.
References :
ECE teacher, mother of 3, grandmother of a whole bunch