Drama is about learning through imagined experience. We use participation, stepping into the shoes of other people in a story, to explore complex ideas, thoughts and feelings. Because the children are in it, doing drama rather than just watching others do it for them, they experience the story from inside, which generates both deep feelings and thoughts. This replicates how we learn best in real life; as in life, in drama we think and feel when we are doing, because we are part of it – which makes drama a profound experience. We call it Drama in Education because this kind of learning develops the child individually, socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically.

There are different centres or themes or topics for different age groups. The story can be the same but the centre can be different reflecting the stage of development for each age group. We always choose stories and centres that are age group appropriate. The lessons are then structured accordingly. For example at 3 y.o. children are less socially orientated then at 5 or 6 y.o. They are also more dependent on ‘doing’, the enactive, rather than language, the symbolic. Younger children also need a lot of repetition for engagement, enjoyment and learning. Whereas 8 y.o children are very much more developed linguisitically speaking, capable of abstract thinking and aware of conceptual thought. So all of these factors – and many others too – are brought to bear when choosing a story and then structuring the centre and lesson plan around it.

The changes to a child are emotional, psychological and intellectual. The experience of doing in drama, the sense of being there (in drama) as in life, and the connection between thought and feeling encourages children to be independent in thought and action, this freedom is used to enable the child to develop a mind of her own. This is important on two levels in drama: It fosters creativity in the child on the one hand and helps the child see things from other people’s points of view on the other, to develop empathy and become aware of the needs of others. The child uses the drama to make values which are more human because they are not simply motivated by self interest. What has been learned in drama, including human values, can then be applied in life.

It is important to point out that this is a question asked from an adult perspective, with adult values being imposed on the story or drama. The stories are as sophisticated as the children who explore it, if the structure is strong and well facilitated. To use the example of Hansel and Gretel, it is a a story which is popular with 4 y.o. all over the world and has survived thousands of years telling, because it explores fundamental fears that all children have. Children need such stories to help them understand life. We often forget that children live in the same world as we do. They are not ‘grown-ups’ in waiting, they are human beings in their own right who have all the fundamental experiences that go to the heart of what it is to be human, including: joy, love, sadness, hate, anger, fear, envy and so on, each experienced in their own unique way. In DRE, we do not protect children from the world; we protect them into it through the safety of stories. It’s like finding a playground in which to test their thoughts and feelings that is more constructive and less exposing than directly facing these aspects of human experience unprepared in the chaos of everyday life. If we adults try to control what they should and should not think or feel about our dangers, then we risk hindering children’s emotional and intellectual development.

We have a one-year development plan, but we also have to be flexible, because we have to meet the needs of the class as a whole, as well as the specific needs of individual children. This requires that we adapt and sometimes deviate from prepared plans, and even create new courses, if necessary, when we have some specific needs to meet. For example, we can create a story about cooperation if the group is not finding it easy to work collectively. If an individual child lacks confidence we can give them a role in the story that gives them high status and will build their confidence. If a child has difficulty listening to others, we can give them a role that requires that they pay specific attention to what others say etc. So in this sense we try to use the plans as a means of facilitating the children. We facilitate the children not the plans. The structures are only that, structures. We always try to start from the children in font of us, not what we have on paper.

It is also useful for parents to challenge their child with different activities. Story challenges the imagination in the way that TV or digital games don’t because in drama the child has to do most of the work, while TV and gaming technology does the work for them. Children will often complain of boredom when they really mean that they are challenged, resisting the challenge, or find it difficult. It is worth pointing out that boredom is useful because it stimulates the imagination (most stories are invented out of boredom) and throws the child back on their own resources to deal with it. Parents should not be bullied by cries of “I’m bored” into solving the problem for their child!

There are several reasons why children may not speak and it is hard to generalise. There may be particular learning or development issues for example. There are other considerations also. There may be difficulties that are rooted at home, or school. Furthermore children do not develop at the same rate, at the same pace. Some need more time than others to adapt to the culture of the DRE Centre, which is a radical departure from school. It is possible that the kind of active participation and taking responsibility required in DiE are limited in the daily or school environment, where parents often micro manage every aspect of the child’s life, or transmission teaching requires little dialogue between teacher and pupil. Suddenly, at the DRE Centre, s/he needs to participate actively and take responsibility for his/her own learning, learning to learn, and perhaps s/he is not yet ready or does not know how to proceed. Of course, there may be other reasons. For example, s/he has not yet acquired language skills or the confidence to use them that participation in drama nurtures over time, and s/he prefers doing over talking. It maybe s/he is a visual thinker etc. Each child is different, and it is our role to identify the cause that lies beneath any symptomatic behaviour.

To do this, teacher-facilitators usually do two things. Firstly, communicate with the parents of the child, understand what the child’s life and school environment is like, and discuss any significant events that can impact on the child’s development. Secondly, having done this, our staff will find stories and situations from our teaching materials that resonate with the child’s own lived experience. This will help the child to participate actively and contribute to the exploration by the whole class. Over time, with patience and understanding and care, the child will gain different experience through practice in the class,which, with the support of his/her family, will enable the child to participate more fully.