Children find it easier to explore and express their feelings through role play with peers than by talking to adults, as Lena Engel explains
Dressing up, fun at any age, has a special creative appeal for the very young. It allows children to enter a world with no barriers between the real and the imaginary. Role-play activities used effectively can help children review and discuss their feelings and can inspire them to consider the feelings of others.
Children begin to explore their own feelings by comparing them to those of others. Childrens stories are a good stimulus for discussions about feelings and for role play that explores those feelings, as they often reflect subjects and emotions that the children have already experienced.
For example, in Owl Babies by Martin Waddell (Walker Books, 4.99), the owls are left alone in a tree while their mother goes hunting for food. We want our mummy is a repeated phrase in the book with which children will easily identify, and it should initiate interesting conversations about times they may have used it themselves.
Traditional tales such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears can evoke a range of emotions. The bears are presented in such a sympathetic way that we are not concerned for Goldilocks safety. We can empathise with her feelings and describe what we might do in her place. Sensitive adult intervention will enable children to learn how to express their ideas and explore sensations that they may not have had themselves.
A good stimulus for discussing feelings and then exploring them through role play is Flora the Frog, written by Shirley Isherwood and illustrated by Anna C Leplar (Bloomsbury Childrens Books, 4.99). In the story, Flora takes part in a drama production at school in which she plays a frog. Despite initially disliking her part, which she believes is the least attractive one, Flora changes her mind when her mother and aunt agree to sew spangles on her costume. These shiny sequins represent sparkling drops of water that Flora has observed on real frogs by the pond in her neighbours garden.
The main strength of the story is that it explores a range of feelings that children may experience and it highlights the way in which childrens moods can quickly change as circumstances alter.
Child-centred role-play
When you plan role-play activities, consider from the start what you would like the children to learn from the experience. Role-play can develop skills in each area of learning.
Children learn to interact as they play together, to share resources and learn how to behave in familiar and unfamiliar situations. Participation will encourage children to test the behaviour and responses of people in the contexts presented to them. Children will use their prior knowledge and experience to put themselves into the shoes of others and imitate them.
Role-play gives children the opportunity to take on other peoples personalities and expressions. Children should be given the scope and encouragement to both learn and use language that reflects the characters they are playing.
Mathematical development is supported through well-planned role-play when scenarios and accompanying props stimulate children, for example when they write numerals, count objects or dial a telephone number.
Knowledge and understanding of the world can be taught when role-play introduces children effectively to the use of technological equipment such as radios, telephones and cash tills. Children may also learn a good deal about the way institutions operate when they participate in play that replicates working, for instance in a shop, a dentists surgery or a police station.
Fine motor skills are promoted by encouraging children to put on dressing-up clothes by themselves and to handle props and tools. Some roles will also provide good whole-body (gross motor) exercise.
Creative development can be promoted when children are encouraged to use personal experiences and imaginative skills to bring role-play characters to life.
Practice points
- Practitioners must plan role-play so that it meets the learning needs of children in their setting. Give due consideration to providing the appropriate resources and physical environment that will stimulate childrens imagination and interest to the full.
- Children need a varying amount of adult support to engage in role-play and this will differ according to their age and level of confidence.
- Adults should involve children in developing initial ideas for the role-play and allow them to help set up the activity in the nursery or classroom.
- Practitioners also need to stimulate childrens initial efforts to communicate and should introduce suitable language and vocabulary to enrich the value of the play.
- It must be the children themselves who choose how they want to join in and develop the play. Often younger or less confident children spend a long time on the sidelines of role-play so that they can imitate their peers.
- Practitioners should take care not to dominate children or to impose choices on them as in Flora the Frog, where Flora dislikes the role that the teacher has given her. She overcomes her dislike of her role after she is able to exercise some control over it by having sequins added. Her change of heart reminds us how adaptable children are and how refreshing it can be for them to make decisions for themselves.
Communication
- Glove or finger puppets can be used to encourage children to talk and to express their feelings. Young children may be more likely to respond to a puppet talking to them than to an adult, because it is smaller and may remind them of familiar toys or animals. Young children relate to animated toys much less self-consciously than they do to adults or even their peers. This is proven by the success of TV programmes such as Teletubbies.
- Puppets are particularly helpful with children who have communi- cation difficulties, because puppets have a fixed expression that is non-threatening and non-judgemental. Puppets can help shy children overcome their fears and begin to develop a meaningful relationship with others.
- Use puppets in a number of ways during the day. At register time a glove puppet can greet the children and encourage them to say good morning in response to hearing their name. Vary the experience by making the puppet wish them good morning in different languages, or by singing the words as well as their names.
- If the children are expected to make choices about what to do at the start of the session, use a puppet to describe what is on offer in the class and encourage the children to tell the puppet what they plan to do.
- When children have an opportunity to report what they have been up to and what they have enjoyed, they may be more willing to tell the puppet.
- When children display behaviour problems, they may find it easier to express their temper to a puppet than an adult.
- Finger and glove puppets are always useful to encourage children to sing and join in with others. The puppets can break down the barriers of self-conscious behaviour and give the children something to focus on as they participate.
- Similarly, if children are learning a new language, they will respond much more willingly when a puppet is used as the intermediary to saying a few foreign words as accurately as possible.
Exploring feelings
- As children mature, they become more aware of others moods and emotions. At this stage, they enjoy imitating people they know and like to act out aspects of their personalities.
- Through role-play children can explore what it feels like, for example, to be cross that the baby wont eat dinner. Plan role-play activities that allow children to explore these sorts of feelings.
- For such drama sequences, fill a box or basket with props and invite the children to select what they want for a particular character.
- Then remind them of a recent event, or a story they know well.
- Ask them to recall how the participants behaved and ask them to imitate their actions, expressions and feelings.
- Encourage the children to use non-verbal and verbal communications in their performances.
- Frequent opportunities for this kind of pragmatic role-play can boost childrens self-esteem as they act out their fantasies and practise different emotional responses and so make better sense of what has already happened in their lives.