Just Kidding: Toddlers’ & Preschoolers’ Sociodramatic Play Themes, Part 1
Gravel scattered as the pint-sized Superhero leapt from the choo-choo train in a stumbling bound, and firmly planted his sock-and-sandal clad feet.
His glare dispersed part-time villains as a light breeze and healthy imagination buoyed his invisible, yet fluttering, red cape.
Elsewhere on the playground, a village of miniature mamacitas sporadically nurtured their plastic babies. While fending off occasional interlopers who had strayed from their villain duties, these mini-mamas prepared a feast of mud pies, dandelion salads, and murky beverages garnished with grass. Their suspiciously compliant doll babies coincidentally awakened from their naps just in time to share the morning’s bounty.
Other denizens of the park that day: mothers, fathers, grandparents, and nannies. Some of the adults busied themselves with newspapers or knitting; others tended squirming infants too small to play along with older siblings, but old enough to know something exciting was happening. An occasional sincere shriek or a hard landing commanded the attention of the guardians, but beyond their supporting roles, few of the adults watched the kids at play. That is because few adults know how to observe kids at play or what to look for. Any parent who wonders about a child’s social development can perform an instant reality check by watching the child interact with the tools of play: other children, adults, toys, household items, and the home itself.
During pretend play, children master several developmental milestones. Playground negotiations use communication skills; the resulting compromises and turn taking increase the social (and emotional) repertoire of the participants. The challenges of gravity and physics encourage thinking skills. And teamwork helps kids to meet almost any playtime challenge. Feats of imagined strength and bravery serve as antidotes to prior episodes of fear or powerlessness. Children direct energy into the endless footsteps required to run, slide, hop, wiggle and climb. Their daring ideas rely on natural creativity and the freedom to explore. New teachable moments captivate young minds only if there was freedom to indulge in previous curiosity. Even the rough and tumble of shifting social alliances will eventually reward the players by helping them discover the emotional resilience that lies within them.
Tips for older siblings:
By age 5 or 6, children will become capable of cooperating with each other to develop a plan for playing:
- assigning roles,
- loosely scripting the action, and
- infusing characters with specific traits that reveal personality.
- older children can create more definite beginnings, middles, and endings to their play plans.
- Although the play date might end for the day, the 5 and 6 year-olds can recapture the same theme from one play date to the next.
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Carly Jennings | Social Development | 
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