Sociodramatic play

Play is being squeezed out of early childhood education in the US. A recent re-port from the Alliance for Childhood [Miller & Almon, 2009, p. 15] summed up the situation for kindergarten: Too few Americans are aware of the radical changes in kindergarten practice in the last ten to twenty years. Children now spend far more time being instructed and tested in lit-eracy and math than they do learning through play and exploration, exercising their bod-ies, and using their imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula linked to standardized tests. An increasing number of teachers must follow scripts from which they may not deviate. Many children struggle to live up to academic standards that are developmentally inappropriate … At the same time that we have increased academic pressure in children’s lives through inappropriate standards, we have managed to under-mine their primary tool for dealing with stress – freely chosen, child-directed, intrinsi-cally motivated p...

The main purpose of the study was to investigate preschool teachers' perceptions and classroom practices of learning through socio-dramatic plays in government and private preschools in Deber Berhan, Ethiopia. In so doing, mixed research method was employed as an appropriate methodology. In this study 14 preschool centers (6 government and 8 private preschools) were randomly selected for the study participant, and 52 preschool teachers (21 teachers from government and 31 teachers from private) were selected. And also 7 teachers also purposively selected for qualitative data. Questionnaire for the quantitative data, interview and observation for qualitative data were the main tools of data collection. Quantitative data analyzed using descriptive statistics techniques of mean and standard deviation. Independent sample t test also employed to measure the existing differences in perception between government and private preschool teachers. Qualitative data analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that the majority of preschool teachers have better perception about the benefits of sociodramatic plays for children socio emotional, language and literacy skills development. The independent sample t test result also revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in the perception of private and government preschool teachers on the benefits of socio-dramatic plays. Moreover, the study found out learning through socio-dramatic play rarely practiced. Most teachers did not employ some roles expected in implementing learning through socio-dramatic plays in their classrooms. Finally, pertinent recommendations were drawn from the findings of the study.

Since the era of Piaget and Vygotsky, private speech (PS) has been widely discussed, but in recent years, the avenues for its study have greatly expanded. In this study, we explored the use of a recoding scheme for PS inspired by the studies of Pyotr Galperin. A coding scheme for social speech, PS, and the lack of speech, as the form of action (FA) has been proposed (i.e., external social speech, external audible speech, inaudible speech, and mental FA when no speech was produced). An exploratory study was conducted to elucidate the appropriateness of the coding scheme, both ontogenetically and during tasks. The results showed that both the coding scheme by type of speech and FA were adequate for differentiating ontogenetically between children. However, only the coding schemes of the FA were appropriate for differentiating between children as a function of their performance (i.e., time and scores) in a Tower of London task. Moreover, Galperin's scheme was more suitable when the...

This descriptive study used sequential analysis to examine preschool teachers' use of questions as they participated in their children's sociodramatic play and the children's responsiveness to their teachers' questions. Eleven teachers in a Head Start program were videotaped while the teachers interacted with their children in the classrooms' dramatic play center. The analyses indicated that the majority of the teachers used more closed-ended than open-ended questions and that the children were more verbally responsive to open-ended questions than to closed-ended questions in two play modes, pretend-and non-pretend-play modes. In addition, the children responded more frequently to both kinds of questions, open-ended and closed-ended, than to their teachers' non-question comments or prompts. The findings suggest a need for a future study investigating teachers' questions in children's sociodramatic play in various play contexts.

In this case study, situated in a preschool classroom within an early childhood Spanish/ English dual language programme, we examine how an emergent bilingual child engages with multimodal resources to participate in sociodramatic play discourses. Guided by sociocultural and critical discourse perspectives on multimodality, we analysed ways in which Anthony, a four-year-old emergent bilingual child, engaged in meaning-making during play through verbal, visual and actional modes and in conjunction with additional subcategories in his transmodal repertoire (e.g. translanguaging, sentence types, actual versus signified use of artefacts). Our results revealed differences in the ways Anthony engaged his verbal modes (e.g. monolingual languaging versus translanguaging; varying sentence types) together with actional and visual modes to accomplish adult-centric tasks versus creatively engaging in child-centric play. His translanguaging furthered his communication in tandem with the affordances of his visual and actional resources, depending on his play purposes and collaborators. Anthony's case illustrates how emergent bilingual children access a variety of modes to participate in literate discourses in complex and varied ways. This article concludes with a discussion on the importance of thoroughly accounting for the contexts and multimodal supports in interactive learning spaces.

The study focused on the Effects of Play-Based Literacy on the Reading Readiness of Grade One Students. This utilized a quasi-experimental, one-group design with pre-test and post-test measures. The participants in this study will be Grade One students in one primary school in Cebu, Philippines.The study will make use of the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Program. The Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Program uses benchmark books to assess students' reading levels.The study yielded that in terms of the High-Frequency Words Assessment during the pre-test, five (5) students did not meet expectations during the pretest, while the others met the expectation. Moreover, after the play-based intervention, all of the students either met or exceeded the expectation on the assessment of high-frequency words. Likewise, in terms of reading assessment, it can be seen that there was an increase in the level of students reading readiness after the play-based intervention.The res...

The study focused on the Effects of Play-Based Literacy on the Reading Readiness of Grade One Students. This utilized a quasi-experimental, one-group design with pre-test and post-test measures. The participants in this study will be Grade One students in one primary school in Cebu, Philippines.The study will make use of the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Program. The Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Program uses benchmark books to assess students' reading levels.The study yielded that in terms of the High-Frequency Words Assessment during the pre-test, five (5) students did not meet expectations during the pretest, while the others met the expectation. Moreover, after the play-based intervention, all of the students either met or exceeded the expectation on the assessment of high-frequency words. Likewise, in terms of reading assessment, it can be seen that there was an increase in the level of students reading readiness after the play-based intervention.The results of the study highlighted the significance of play in the growth of young children, particularly with regard to the impact of play on reading development

This study was conducted to help understand a teacher's facilitation of reading and writing during sociodramatic play among Filipino preschoolers. It describes how Filipino preschool teachers demonstrate redirecting and extending style interactions as they participate during sociodramatic play. It also identif ies the ways by which the teacher provided print-rich environments in the dramatic play area to promote early reading and writing among Filipino children with ages ranging from four years old to f ive years old and 11 months. Five female teachers from four schools in Quezon City that adopt the play curriculum based on a set of criteria were studied. Each teacher was interviewed regarding play, her role, and how she prepares the dramatic play area. She was observed for 10 consecutive school days. The teachers' interaction styles were classif ied as either extending or redirecting. Four of the f ive teachers demonstrated at varying degrees both extending and redirecting styles as they participated in the children's sociodramatic play. The interaction style of the teacher revealed her ability to perform within the context of the play and the ways she assisted children in performing reading and writing activities. The considerable increase in the frequency of children's literacy activities during sociodramatic play could be attributed to the combination of extending style interaction and the integration of literacy materials in the dramatic play area.

This descriptive study used sequential analysis to examine preschool teachers' use of questions as they participated in their children's sociodramatic play and the children's responsiveness to their teachers' questions. Eleven teachers in a Head Start program were videotaped while the teachers interacted with their children in the classrooms' dramatic play center. The analyses indicated that the majority of the teachers used more closed-ended than open-ended questions and that the children were more verbally responsive to open-ended questions than to closed-ended questions in two play modes, pretend-and non-pretend-play modes. In addition, the children responded more frequently to both kinds of questions, open-ended and closed-ended, than to their teachers' non-question comments or prompts. The findings suggest a need for a future study investigating teachers' questions in children's sociodramatic play in various play contexts.

In this case study, situated in a preschool classroom within an early childhood Spanish/English dual language programme, we examine how an emergent bilingual child engages with multimodal resources to participate in sociodramatic play discourses. Guided by sociocultural and critical discourse perspectives on multimodality, we analysed ways in which Anthony, a four-year-old emergent bilingual child, engaged in meaning-making during play through verbal, visual and actional modes and in conjunction with additional subcategories in his transmodal repertoire (e.g. translanguaging, sentence types, actual versus signified use of artefacts). Our results revealed differences in the ways Anthony engaged his verbal modes (e.g. monolingual languaging versus translanguaging; varying sentence types) together with actional and visual modes to accomplish adult-centric tasks versus creatively engaging in child-centric play. His translanguaging furthered his communication in tandem with the affordanc...

This study was conducted to help understand a teacher’s facilitation of reading and writing during sociodramatic play among Filipino preschoolers. It describes how Filipino preschool teachers demonstrate redirecting and extending style interactions as they participate during sociodramatic play. It also identifies the ways by which the teacher provided print-rich environments in the dramatic play area to promote early reading and writing among Filipino children with ages ranging from four years old to f ive years old and 11 months. Five female teachers from four schools in Quezon City that adopt the play curriculum based on a set of criteria were studied. Each teacher was interviewed regarding play, her role, and how she prepares the dramatic play area. She was observed for 10 consecutive school days. The teachers’ interaction styles were classified as either extending or redirecting. Four of the f ive teachers demonstrated at varying degrees both extending and redirecting styles as ...

In this case study, situated in a preschool classroom within an early childhood Spanish/English dual language programme, we examine how an emergent bilingual child engages with multimodal resources to participate in sociodramatic play discourses. Guided by sociocultural and critical discourse perspectives on multimodality, we analysed ways in which Anthony, a four-year-old emergent bilingual child, engaged in meaning-making during play through verbal, visual and actional modes and in conjunction with additional subcategories in his transmodal repertoire (e.g. translanguaging, sentence types, actual versus signified use of artefacts). Our results revealed differences in the ways Anthony engaged his verbal modes (e.g. monolingual languaging versus translanguaging; varying sentence types) together with actional and visual modes to accomplish adult-centric tasks versus creatively engaging in child-centric play. His translanguaging furthered his communication in tandem with the affordanc...

In this case study, situated in a preschool classroom within an early childhood Spanish/English dual language programme, we examine how an emergent bilingual child engages with multimodal resources to participate in sociodramatic play discourses. Guided by sociocultural and critical discourse perspectives on multimodality, we analysed ways in which Anthony, a four-year-old emergent bilingual child, engaged in meaning-making during play through verbal, visual and actional modes and in conjunction with additional subcategories in his transmodal repertoire (e.g. translanguaging, sentence types, actual versus signified use of artefacts). Our results revealed differences in the ways Anthony engaged his verbal modes (e.g. monolingual languaging versus translanguaging; varying sentence types) together with actional and visual modes to accomplish adult-centric tasks versus creatively engaging in child-centric play. His translanguaging furthered his communication in tandem with the affordanc...

The global attention on research in preschool education has increased and there is an immense motivation in the field of research in Sri Lanka. This research shows that the preschool education is a critical way to introduce and develop all aspects of a child's development with a focus on creativity. The mixed method design approach was used in this research and a stratified random sample was used to collect data during 2015 and 2016. Questionnaires, Interviews and observations were used to collect data from the selected preschools in the Colombo district, Sri Lanka. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. The findings showed that the majority of preschools are run by Non-Government organizations, and the State does operate some preschools. Most of the preschool teachers of Government and Non-Government preschools were not aware of creativity as a learning concept. It was observed that teachers use several methods that did not promote creativity. Preschool teachers mostly provided instructions while trying to keep children quiet in order to manage the classroom. The

I became very creative when I started my own training to become a sociodrama director. I was a primary school teacher, in a public school, working with a class of 7/8 year old boys and girls. We were studying the human body, one of the curriculum's topics that awakens lots of curiosity in children of this age group.

The focus of this research is the role of the concept of the Vygostky"s zone of proximal development (ZPD) in early childhood education. It highlights how this approach is helpful in the evaluation and assessment of mental and social development of children. The concept of ZPD alludes to cognitive functioning of children and their development that precedes from interaction with more capable and competent others, the competent adults (teachers) who take the initiative to impart education through guidance and encouragement in problem solving settings and adapt their level of help according to the requirement of the children and motivate them by placing in a challenging situation above their level to make them reach a level beyond the current zone, by exercising their full potential. With this concept of ZPD, the method of participant observation and conversation analysis has been used to study the eight selected 6-year old children who were stimulated with story-telling and observed for the roles they pick to play and the vocabulary usage. The study concludes that story-telling opens up the avenues for the children to go beyond their actual level of development and learn the language in a better manner through the acquisition of new words and try to use these words in their play and reach ZPD.

In this case study, situated in a preschool classroom within an early childhood Spanish/English dual language program, we examine how an emergent bilingual child engages with multimodal resources to participate in sociodramatic play discourses. Guided by sociocultural and critical discourse perspectives on multimodality, we analyzed ways in which Anthony, a four-year-old emergent bilingual child, engaged in meaning making during play through verbal, visual, and actional modes and in conjunction with additional subcategories in his transmodal repertoire (e.g., translanguaging, sentence types, actual versus signified use of artifacts). Our results revealed differences in the ways Anthony engaged his verbal modes (e.g., monolingual languaging versus translanguaging; varying sentence types) together with actional and visual modes to accomplish adult-centric tasks versus to creatively engage in child-centric play. His translanguaging furthered his communication in tandem with the affordances of his visual and actional resources depending on his play purposes and collaborators. Anthony's case illustrates how emergent bilingual children access a variety of modes to participate in literate discourses in complex and varied ways. This article concludes with a discussion on the importance of thoroughly accounting for the contexts and multimodal supports in interactive learning spaces.

In this case study, situated in a preschool classroom within an early childhood Spanish/English dual language programme, we examine how an emergent bilingual child engages with multimodal resources to participate in sociodramatic play discourses. Guided by sociocultural and critical discourse perspectives on multimodality, we analysed ways in which Anthony, a four-year-old emergent bilingual child, engaged in meaning-making during play through verbal, visual and actional modes and in conjunction with additional subcategories in his transmodal repertoire (e.g. translanguaging, sentence types, actual versus signified use of artefacts). Our results revealed differences in the ways Anthony engaged his verbal modes (e.g. monolingual languaging versus translanguaging; varying sentence types) together with actional and visual modes to accomplish adult-centric tasks versus creatively engaging in child-centric play. His translanguaging furthered his communication in tandem with the affordances of his visual and actional resources, depending on his play purposes and collaborators. Anthony’s case illustrates how emergent bilingual children access a variety of modes to participate in literate discourses in complex and varied ways. This article concludes with a discussion on the importance of thoroughly accounting for the contexts and multimodal supports in interactive learning spaces.

Vygotskian theory and empirical evidence suggest that children's private speech and pretend play contribute to their development of motivational processes. Given current U.S. preschool expansion, and resurgent debates over the merits of play-based vs. non-play-based approaches to early childhood education , this study conducted an experimental investigation of the relative impact of these contexts on preschoolers' private speech and mastery motivation (performance and persistence). 38 preschool children engaged in a challenging fishing activity in two experimental conditions (playful and non-playful) simulating pedagogical and motivational (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) characteristics of common preschool settings. Private speech was categorized as cognitive, motivational, metacognitive, playful or partially inter-nalized, and the emotional valence of private speech was marked as positive or negative. Results indicated that preschoolers in the playful condition displayed higher mastery motivation than preschoolers in the non-playful condition. Children in the playful condition used more frequent private speech, including more frequent cognitive, playful, and positively valenced private speech. Mastery motivation was positively correlated with playful, partially internalized, and positively valenced private speech, but negatively related to motivational private speech. Mastery motivation components (performance and persistence) related to different types of private speech. Performance related positively to metacognitive private speech and negatively to motivational private speech. Persistence related positively to playful private speech. The playful condition elicited private speech categories that were associated with higher motivation levels. Findings support the use of playful and play-based pedagogy in early childhood education, and teacher modeling of motivationally beneficial forms of private speech.

Children best learn language through playful learning experiences in the preschool classroom. The present study focused on developing oral language skills in preschool children through a sociodramatic play intervention. The study employed a case study design under qualitative approach. The researcher conducted a sociodramatic play intervention collaboratively with the class teacher for a group of 10 children selected utilizing purposive sampling method in a preschool classroom. The intervention was conducted in a preschool located in Colombo, Sri Lanka for 3 weeks. The observation, interview and reflective journal were the instrument used to collect data. The observation carried under two criteria namely, ability to initiate a conversation and ability to respond in a conversation revealed that the sociodramatic play intervention created many opportunities to develop oral language skills in the children than the regular classroom activities. The sociodramatic play activities enhanced children's oral language skills while creating a language rich playful learning experiences.

In preschool years, the play is the vital mode of learning of children. Among different forms of play sociodramatic play is highlighted as most common and important type of play during 3-5 years old as it is a medium for the development of the cognitive, creative, and socio-emotional abilities that will be useful within a school environment. In the Socio-dramatic play, children use objects as props to develop story episodes that involve other children. However, increased academic expectations for children entering preschools have shifted the focus away from teaching children through play. Thus, this study focused on investigating how children participate in sociodramatic play with regard to their age, gender and themes used in a preschool classroom.
A qualitative approach was employed in the study utilizing an action  research design. A sociodramatic play intervention was carried out in a preschool located in Nawala area in the Colombo district with a cohort of 10 children purposively selected ranging in age from 3 years to 5 years over 4 weeks. The data consisted of observations, field notes documented with the support of video recordings, interviews and teacher’s reflective journal and analysed using descriptive analysis align with the research objectives by deriving sub-themes developed based on literature.
The intervention revealed that children showed a greater interest in sociodramatic play when compared with the other usual classroom activities. A significant difference didn't appear with regard to the age in the children's participation. Girls became more active in some of the subcategories in sociodramatic play intervention than boys while boys showed more participation in the rest of the subcategories. The nature of the themes had an influence on the increment of children’s participation in the intervention. The opportunities for the participation of girls and boys, different age levels, opportunities for a variety of themes, previous practices and skills, nature of the teacher’s involvement became the significant factors for the improvement of participation in sociodramatic play.
Finally, the study concluded that the sociodramatic play is both a medium and context for developing playful experiences for the development of children and, therefore, the findings proposed to develop a greater emphasis and encouragement on sociodramatic play by including it into the preschool curriculum and providing guidelines for the implementations for both teachers and preschools.