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Many leaders in the field of child development refer to play as “children’s work” because it provides the opportunity to teach children important concepts and skills that will shape their future success. Play is an important piece of preschool development and helps children learn concepts like cause & effect and time relationships. Plus, it helps young children gain an understanding of how the world works, including how to get along with others, how to entertain oneself, and even how to solve problems.
The Association for Child Development defines play in its position statement as a “dynamic, active and constructive behavior” that is “essential for all children.” We often discuss the importance that play has on a preschooler’s development and encourage our students to learn while they play. Despite it being a major and important piece to progress, it should be FUN. “Dramatic Play,” or sometimes called “Pretend Play,” can help build a preschooler’s developing literacy skills. Dramatic Play can be any of the following:
- reenacting everyday activities or situations that children observe, such as setting a table
- engaging in intensely imaginative activities based on knowledge children gain from books, movies, or TV, like going on a safari adventure
- retelling/reenacting stories they hear, such as Little Red Riding Hood
- singing and acting out songs they hear, such as “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”
Dramatic Play can also be used to support early literacy development, in and out of a school setting. In a Dramatic Play Center that is set up by teachers or parents, preschoolers can experiment with everyday household items that contain text (think newspapers, letters, labeled food containers, menus, & coupons) and attempt to interact with them just as an adult would. This allows them to see firsthand the many ways we use text in everyday life.
By regularly and systematically incorporating literacy props into dramatic play, you help children realize that different tasks require different texts. For instance, a doctor would require an appointment book & medical pamphlets whereas a restaurant worker would need menus & order pads. This exposure to a wide range of different text types will help children differentiate text features like how to format a shopping list versus how format a map.
Dramatic Play also builds comprehension by allowing children to act out familiar stories. When a preschooler acts out or retells a story, they are truly comprehending it. They gain an understanding of the characters, the structure, and the themes and how everything goes together in a certain order. By taking on the different roles in a story, they will gain an understanding that characters have different personalities and motivations. All-in-all, they will gain a sophisticated understanding of narrative structure.
Children are naturally interested in the world around them. Unlike things they can learn by playing independently (such as block buildings tip over when get too tall), literacy concepts, skills, and understandings must be taught.There is no better way to teach these concepts than play. Fun matters. It’s what gets children engaged, curious, and coming back for more. At Kids ‘R’ Kids Avalon Park, our curriculum for preschoolers includes plenty of structured and free play time along with a wonderful set of Dramatic Play activity centers. If you’d like to know more about how your preschooler can benefit from enrolling at our Avalon Park center, give us a call today or stop by for a tour of our beautiful campus!