What is the practice?
Dramatic play occurs any time a toddler uses her imagination to act out a scene or pretend she is someone else. As a parent, take part in these scenes by following your child’s lead. Show your interest and provide props to enrich the experience. This can motivate your child to continue the fun of pretend play.
What does the practice look like?
A toddler dresses up in Mom’s old high heels and hosts a tea party for her dolls. A child acts out her own version of a favorite scene from The Lion King movie. These children are enjoying dramatic play. Playing different roles with a parent or other children is full of benefts for toddlers. They come to understand more about the roles they’re playing and they get to practice using language they wouldn’t normally use on their own. For example, a child pretending to be a frefghter practices thinking from another person’s point of view and uses uncommon words such as helmet, hose, and alarm. These are important skills for developing language and speech.
How do you do the practice?
Many toddlers enjoy using their imaginations and engaging in dramatic play on their own. If your toddler hasn’t shown much interest yet, there are many ways to provide opportunities for pretend play based on her special “favorites.”
How do you know the practice worked?
- Is your toddler using her imagination in her play more often and for longer periods of time?
- Does your toddler pretend to “talk” for different toys or give voices to them?
- Does she expand on stories she's heard or movies she's seen in her play by imitating or adding to scenes, dialogue, or characters?
- Encourage your toddler to act out a story you read together. Try saying things like “Show me what the little boy did,” or “Do you want to be the cat or the dog?” to start the process. Take on the role of one character yourself and invite your toddler to play another part with you.
- When your child is playing with a favorite toy such as a stuffed animal, toy car, or doll, use a similar toy to start a pretend “chat” between the toys. For example, one truck might ask the other where it’s going or what its name is. Prompting talk between toys is a good frst step in dramatic play.
- Provide your toddler with toys that support dramatic play, like old clothes for dress-up, doctor kits, tool boxes, and pretend food.
- Invite your child to use drawing, scribbling, or painting as a starting point for dramatic play. Ask her to tell you about the picture she is making. You can help her expand on her answers (What’s the lion doing? What is this lion saying to his friend?) and pair actions with her verbal responses (Can you show me how this lion walks? Could we walk this way and be lions too?).
- Don’t worry if your toddler’s dramatic play doesn’t make a lot of sense. A young child might have a fre- fghter stop for pancakes on the way to a fre or blast off into space after the job is done. The important thing is that she is using her imagination and practicing dif- ferent roles and words.
Take a look at more toddlers' dramatic play
Favorite Character Fun
Twenty-month-old Petra loves watching her Cinderella DVD over and over again. She knows every song and can name all the characters. Sometimes her mom suggests they “play Cinderella.” Petra gets to pick which role she wants to play, and they use dolls and stuffed animals to act out Petra’s favorite parts of the story. Lately, Petra has begun including other props into her play. She uses her big brother’s toy truck as Cinderella’s carriage, for example, and makes the story different each time. Once, Petra and her big brother pretended to be Cinderella and the prince having a tea party. Mom knows Petra enjoys this kind of play because she wants to “play Cinderella” over and over.
Pretend at the Playground
Bella, who is almost three, is an active, energetic toddler who loves running and playing outside. She has less patience for looking at books and indoor play. When her dad takes her to the park, they use their imaginations on the climbing equipment. “What do you want to be today, Bella?” her dad asks. “Astronauts or explorers?” “Let’s go on the rocket ship!” Bella yells, leading her dad to the spring-mounted riding toys. “We’re in the rocket ship, about to blast off,” her dad says. “What do we see?” “Stars,” Bella says, “and some space monsters.” “Uh-oh! What should we do about the space monsters?” “Blast off!” Bella yells, and bounces wildly toward her next adventure.
Hopping Imagination
Elly is a 30-month-old toddler who has developmental delays that affect her attention span and language skills. Her dad knows it’s important that Elly practice speaking and staying with an activity. He also knows how much she loves playing with her two pet rabbits. When it’s time to feed the rabbits, Elly dad’s gets her attention and asks, “Are you ready to be the mama rabbit, Elly?” Elly knows that as the “mama rabbit” it is her job to feed the rabbits in their cage, play with them gently, and talk to them quietly so they don’t get frightened. “What do your rabbit babies want to eat today?” her dad asks. “Carrots or lettuce?” “Carrots,” Elly says. She gets a piece of carrot for herself, too, and takes the rest to the cage. “Hi, babies,” Elly says. “They’re happy to see you, aren’t they?” her dad asks. “How can you tell your rabbit babies are happy?” “Noses,” Elly says, point- ing to their twitching noses. “What are they going to do today, Elly?” her dad asks. “Swimming,” Elly answers. Her dad laughs. “Your baby rabbits like going swimming?” “Me too,” Elly says. As she feeds them, Elly and her dad make up a story about swimming with rabbits.
