stocked with dress-up clothes and real-life pretend items such as plastic foods, pots and pans, telephone, ironing board, dolls, and more. Children are able to take things they have observed in their day-to-day life and apply them to these make-believe environments. These play items allow for pretend play and the practicing of a variety of skills. Many experts believe that this pretend play helps children to develop and work on new skills.
Children with special needs, such as ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, or Asperger’s will want to participate in dramatic play, but may lack some of the necessary skills. It is important for children to participate in dramatic play, because during this time children work on a number of other skills. Here’s an example of some of the skills a child may be working on during their dress-up time:
- Social and Emotional Skills: During dramatic play children try on different roles, i.e., they pretend they are someone else. They learn to cooperate and negotiate with each other as they select their roles and the play scenario. They learn to take turns with props and roles. The role-playing also provides them with the opportunity to see the world through another person’s eyes and begin to understand the feelings of others. This helps build empathy for others.
- Language Skills: Children must use their words to negotiate the play time with the other children. Also, when children pretend to be someone else, they will often take on the words and language of the person they are imitating. It is not unusual to hear your daughter repeating your words as she is pretending to be mommy.
- Physical Skills: While role-playing, children must use their fine motor skills when buttoning a jacket or dressing a baby. Hand-eye coordination is also practiced as they interact with the various props in the pretend area.
- Cognitive Thinking Skills: Pretend play involves a lot of abstract thinking. Children will take an object and pretend it is something else. For example, if children are creating a restaurant, they may use small objects to represent money. Children must also not only plan what they want to do, but they need to use their organizational skills to gather materials and to work with other children that may be involved in their role playing activities.
Ideas for Dramatic Play
- If you are interested in creating a dramatic play area at home or at school, Cathy Abraham at Alphabet Soup provides an extensive list of pretend play themes with corresponding props.
- The Perpetual Preschool allows people to submit their theme ideas which has resulted in a large list of possible play activities.
- Kelly’s Kindergarten also offers a number of play themes, along with specific items that she has created that can be downloaded and printed.
- Literacy Play: Over 300 Dramatic Play Activities that Teach Pre-Reading Skills is a book by Sherrie West providing many pretend play activities that can help teach pre-reading skills.
All children can benefit from dramatic play because it allows them to practice valuable skills. It is important for parents and teachers to work with children with special needs so that they can participate as fully as the rest of their peers. Tara Delaney’s book, 101 Games and Activities for Children with Autism, Aspergers and Sensory Processing Disorders, could be a good place to start. It contains over a 100 games to help teach eye contact, turn-taking, increase focus, and many other skills necessary for preschool and kindergarten. Play can have many positive results on children and it is important for all children to be able to participate.
