ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the educators to recognise the elements of drama evident in children’s role-play and to work with these elements to strengthen the dramatic texts naturally emerging. The study draws on research by the initiators of socio-dramatic play training and provides both quantitative and qualitative results in relation to children aged three to six, in a disadvantaged setting. Drama pedagogy recognises the presence of these elements and presents a theoretical and practical framework within which educators can support and extend children’s role-play by working from inside children’s dramatic interactions. In considering children’s development, meaningful dramatic interactions are prioritised by the work of L.S. Vygotsky and S.Smilansky and L. Shefatya. Drama extends their experiences by sustaining dramatic interactions, which are imaginatively more expansive. The adult using drama remains concerned with children’s desire to play but guides using knowledge and practice of the elements of dramatic interactions.
