The Power of Dramatic Play in the Early Years: What is dramatic play and why is it important?

As a child, you watch from the sidelines, admiring the seamless tasks and activities that the adults complete. 

From the simple things like washing the dishes and preparing dinner through to seeing them tackle incredible adventures, such as travelling to space and exploring the unknown. 

You spend your childhood lost in your own world, creating your own scenarios - playing teacher with your friends or even teddy bears, or acting as Santa Claus delivering, or even taking your very own trip to the moon! 

Each of these childhood adventures holds so much more meaning than simply playing. 

This is known as dramatic play. 

In this blog, we’ll delve deeper into the power of dramatic play in the early years and what it is;  explore its importance in early childhood development; as well as the lasting benefits for children. 

What is the meaning of dramatic play?

Simply put, dramatic play is a form of imaginative play for children. 

Dramatic play is something that holds true value in children’s development, and is far more than simply playing dress-up with friends. 

Dramatic play, also known as pretend play or role play, is an essential part of early childhood education. 

It involves children taking on roles and acting out scenarios, which can range from everyday situations - like playing house - to more imaginative scenarios, like pretending to be pirates.

This type of play is beneficial for children in various ways, allowing them to explore the world around them and helping them make sense of their experiences.

Playing, be that dramatic or any other form of play, develops children’s essential skills that will stay with them long after childhood. 

Image from Freepik

Benefits of dramatic play in the early years

Dramatic play for children has an incredible amount of benefits for little ones, and is something that should be encouraged from a young age.

Why is role play important in the early years?

Because it  plays a crucial role in a child's life and, when supported correctly, provides a safe and supportive environment for children to explore and make sense of the world around them.

Here, we’ve listed some of the many skills and developmental areas in which dramatic play plays a part and why it should form a regular part of children's play:

Social Skills: During dramatic play, children learn to negotiate roles, take turns, and cooperate with their peers. This helps in developing empathy and understanding different perspectives, and therefore develops their social skills.

Language Development: Engaging in dramatic play encourages children to communicate their ideas, negotiate roles, solve problems and sometimes use technical terminology they have learnt/heard about the topic (e.g. stethoscope).  This enhances their language and vocabulary skills. We have another blog that discusses the importance of language development in young children; you can read it here.

Emotional Development: Dramatic play allows children to express their feelings, manage emotions, understand the emotional responses of others, as well as showing empathy for the role they are playing (e.g. an ill patient).

Cognitive Development: Dramatic play promotes problem-solving skills, abstract thinking, and the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

Motor Skills: Dressing up, manipulating props such as buttons and money, can help in developing fine motor skills.

Through dramatic play in childhood development, children can recreate real-life experiences, process and regulate their emotions, and learn about different roles and responsibilities.

What's the difference between role-play and dramatic play?

The best way to think about the various types of play is that ‘dramatic play’ is an umbrella term. 

Other forms of play, such as role play and imagination play, can be used interchangeably. They are very similar but with subtle differences. 

Here’s a table illustrating the small differences, as well as examples of scenarios and toys that could be used: (more on examples of dramatic play and toys later on in the blog)

Type of Play	Focuses on	Realistic / Fantasy	Examples of Scenarios	Examples of Toys
Role Play	Taking on a specific character	Both	Children playing ‘cafe’ with menus and play food	Play kitchen, pretend money, till, dress-up clothes, such as a chef
Imaginative Play	Creating make-believe worlds	Fantasy	Pretending to fly to the moon in a rocket	Anything that could be used as a rocket, an astronaut outfit
Pretend Play	Using objects to represent something else	Both	Children being wizards creating magic potions	Wizard outfits, a stick as a magic wand, coloured water and petals for potions

At what age do children engage in dramatic play?

Typically, pre-pretend play can start anywhere around 6-12 months. 

This can be seen when your baby takes interest in items, moves items in and out of containers, and begins copying routine and familiar gestures, such as clapping hands. 

By the age of 18 months, dramatic play looks more like what you would expect role play to look like. 

For instance, your child might sit teddies or dolls upright and pretend to feed them. They may imitate talking on a phone or using objects to pretend to clean up. 

Occupational Therapy website gives a detailed example of pretend play developmental milestones for different age groups.

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Dramatic play ideas and themes

There is a wide range of dramatic play ideas, for ease, we have grouped a few examples under the following themes:

Community & Familiar

• Home - role-playing family members such as mum or dad, cleaning, cooking etc

• Shop - pretending to buy items at the shop, checking out, using money to pay

• Doctor’s surgery - examining and treating other children’s pretend ailments, or even treating dolls, teddies etc

• Restaurant or cafe - taking orders, preparing food and drinks, use of money for payment

• Building site - using blocks or other materials and tools to construct various buildings

• Post office - sending and delivering mail and parcels

Creative & Imaginative

• Astronauts - creating rockets and pretending to fly to outer space

• Pirate adventure - sailing the seas, looking for buried treasure and acting out pirate stories

• Puppet shows - using socks or puppets to imitate characters and creating a performance

• Mud kitchen - making mud pies and other foods from what they have foraged outdoors

• Crafting from various materials - creating parts of a costume such as wings or crowns, making decorations and gifts etc  

Seasonal 

• Christmas role-play - children pretending to be Santa, his elves, Mrs. Clause, or children opening their gifts

• Beach play - pretending they are on the beach, building sand castles, jumping waves etc

• Halloween characters - imitating Halloween celebrations by dressing up and taking on the characteristics of the characters 

  
  

Top tips for supporting dramatic/imaginary play at home

Beyond looking at the importance of imaginative play, we also want to help you understand how you can support imaginary play as part of your child’s playtime. 

As a parent or guardian, it’s natural to want to do everything in your power to support your child’s development. Let’s take a look at how you can best encourage your child to learn through dramatic play. 

As the trusted adult in their life, it’s up to you to be the facilitator of dramatic play. 

By this, we mean that you should support your child with their imaginative play. This can be done by providing them with the necessary props (costumes, toys such as kitchen items/doctor’s bag, crafting items to create a spaceship for example) and encouraging them by giving the children space and freedom to imagine, or by using positive phrases such as “I could see how much effort you have put into being an astronaut”. 

You also want to act as the observer over their imaginative playtime. Keeping a watchful eye will help you to better understand their interests and help you see how their skills are developing. Let them work things out for themselves and only intervene when it’s necessary or, if it fits in with their play narrative. 

And finally, it’s not uncommon for children to invite you into their world of imagination. Interact as part of an active participant. Taking on the role they give to you within their dramatic play can work wonders in enriching their play experience as well as creating cherished memories with them.

Creating an Effective Dramatic Play Area

Another key component to supporting imaginative play for children is to create an environment for it to thrive. To encourage dramatic play, an effective play area should include these three things:

• Variety of Props: Offer a range of props related to different themes (see below for examples). These don't have to be expensive or elaborate; everyday items can be really effective.

• Flexible Space: A space that can be easily transformed into different settings (a castle, a supermarket, a spaceship) encourages imagination. By observing your children playing, as we mentioned above, will let you know what their interests are and what you could create for them.

• Inclusion of Literacy and Numeracy: Incorporating books, menus, or cash registers can subtly integrate literacy and numeracy skills into play, all whilst keeping it fun.

Image from Freepik

Dramatic play toys

Anything can be considered a dramatic play toy. 

From dressing-up costumes to a cardboard box being used as a pirate ship.

A child’s imagination knows no bounds - it’s our role as adults to ensure we provide them with the opportunities to explore and express their creativity.

What toys are considered dramatic play?

We’ve compiled a list of toys that can be used for dramatic and role play. As with dramatic play ideas, we’ve categorised them into themes:

Community & Familiarity

• Home life 

  • Play kitchen set with utensils, play food, plates etc

  • Cleaning sets such as mops, hoovers, brooms

  • Dollhouse with family figures and items

• Caregiving

  • Doctor’s kit

  • Vet’s kit with various animals

  • Dentist kit

  • Hairdresser utensils

• Community helpers

  • Police officer costume and kit

  • Firefighter gear

  • Postman/woman with letters and parcels

  • Construction sets

Creative & Imaginative

• Costume & Dress-up

  • Princess, prince, knights

  • Pirates

  • Animal masks and tails

  • Capes, hats and wigs

  • Magic wands and cloaks

• Fantasy world

  • Puppet theatre with puppets

  • Toy castles, dragons, and fairies

  • Pirate ships and treasure maps

  • Space sets

• Storytelling

  • Felt boards with scenes and characters

  • Mini figures of storybook characters

Seasonal

• Small gardening tools

• Campfire and tents

• Farmer’s market stall

• Sand and sand utensils such as buckets, seave 

If you would like to use multisensory and Montessori-inspired toys, you may want to look at realistic wooden tools for things such as cooking or gardening, practical life activities such as pouring and fastening buttons/zips.

How do we incorporate dramatic play at Lucky Beans Childcare?

At Lucky Beans Childcare, each of our settings is designed specifically with the children’s needs in mind. Giving them the opportunities to express themselves, explore, and learn through play. 

To incorporate dramatic play and role play into the children’s activities, we have designated areas such as a home corner and a dress-up area. 

Additionally, we change the resources in relation to our monthly themes. 

One month, we may be looking at transportation, where the children can pretend to be bus drivers or rocket ship engineers. Whilst in another month, we may be cooking food from another country and learning their traditional dancing.  

Our days are centred around your child’s development and needs, with a focus on forest school ethos - allowing creativity and imagination in any environment. 

We also have frequent trips into the local community - great for children to witness and have first-hand experience of the role of community members in our society. 

As you see, there are so many benefits of role play in the early years. We hope we’ve explained the definition of dramatic play and introduced you to how you too, can support and take part in your child's development and imagination. 

The world truly is your child’s oyster when it comes to dramatic play, so let their imaginations run wild. 

We were all children once, and by encouraging and supporting our children’s interests, you’re not only helping them in their early development, you’re playing the most important role or your own life - being a nurturing comforter that allows them to express their emotions and creativity within a safe environment. 

FAQs

Why is role play important in the early years?

It helps children develop social, emotional and communication skills.

What’s the importance of imaginary play in early childhood?

Imaginary play, or role play, boosts creativity, problem-solving, and emotional understanding.

What are the benefits of dramatic play for babies?

Dramatic play for babies supports their language development, motor skills, and early social interaction. 

What are some pretend play toys?

Some examples include play kitchen, dress-up clothes, dolls, tool sets, and puppets