Nursery World - Who am I? (1)

In the second article of his series on types of play, Philip Waters looks at how role play can help children to explore their own identity and that of others As children grow and develop they are continually exploring what it is that identifies them as being different from, and a part of, the society and culture to which they belong. Role play supports this by being one of the most natural media for exploring the notion of 'Who am I?'

As children grow and develop they are continually exploring what it is that identifies them as being different from, and a part of, the society and culture to which they belong. Role play supports this by being one of the most natural media for exploring the notion of 'Who am I?'

Playing with identities

Role play enables children to discover both who they are as individuals and who they are in relation to others. For the most part children use role play to explore ways of being that are not necessarily personal, social or interpersonal in nature, but rather exaggerate the characteristics or traits of persons known to them, for example family characters: a parent, sibling or grandparent; localised characters: doctor, teacher or shop-keeper; characters from the media: newsreader or cartoon characters; or even different states of being: asleep, unconscious, dead or excited.

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