ABSTRACT
A number of publications have promoted the broad educational advantages that can be derived from games and have shown how different games can, for example, help children develop group sensitivity, encourage social coherence or enhance speaking and listening skills. Many teachers of young children recognise the value such games can play in the personal and social curriculum of their classrooms, incorporating the more reflective of them into circle time activities and the more energetic into drama or PE activities in the hall. Without disputing the educational validity of games, some drama specialists are uneasy when they become too closely identified with the drama curriculum. Games can become a substitute for drama, being easier to organise and readily enjoyed by children; and they can, by implication, place drama too firmly within the area of personal and social education, ignoring its nature as an art form and neglecting the contribution it can make to other areas of the curriculum with ‘harder’ learning outcomes.
