The Benefits of Drama

Being actively involved in Drama and the Performance Arts can bring a wealth of benefits to children, especially in terms of their emotional and mental well-being. From giving children a creative channel to share and work out their worries, to building up their confidence and their ability to cope and be resilient, Drama’s value goes far beyond just giving our children the chance to “express themselves.”

Throughout this month, we’ve been playing several drama and improvisation games, as well as trying scene-reading and team-building activities. While we’re all enjoying communicating and expressing our ideas and feelings, we’re also building up a rich variety of fantastic skills and abilities: Drama builds up ideas while using the imagination; it strengthens confidence and self-esteem, and improves relationship skills and self-awareness.

We always start our Drama class by warming up our bodies and voices, thereby developing awareness of ourselves. It is very important that we are able to articulate and modulate our voices on stage, and learn that being loud and clear does not mean shouting. We learn how to use our diaphragm to project our voices and manage our breathing.

Understanding instructions during games and activities – and remembering them later on – helps to develop memory, attention and concentration. Team-building games bring children together, encouraging communication, collaboration and trust. It is a way to develop group awareness, mental understanding and connections with one another.

We have also started to rehearse different scenes with a partner. This enables the children to build trust with their partner, and encourages them to act out a range of emotions in a safe, supportive environment. By doing this, the children develop empathy for others and are better able to understand their own feelings as well.

Whether we are reading poems, acting out well-known fairytales, carrying out scene readings with our partners or improving our improvisation skills, we’re having a fun, exciting time in Drama – building up our skills as we build up ourselves.