8 KEY BENEFITS OF DRAMA LESSONS FOR CHILDREN

Drama classes aren’t all about producing the thespians of the future (although if that’s the end result it is of course a great bonus!) – there are many more compelling reasons to get your child doing drama classes from a quite early age…

Guest blog by Felicity Sandford, Founder of Amazing Futures Ltd, a social media consultancy for children’s leisure and educational activities and services.

1. Increased confidence in trying new things/ taking risks

If you ask someone what the main advantage of drama classes for children is, the response is often that theatre arts can help make children more confident. Drama is a creative pastime, feeding the imagination as children put themselves into a different role. This broadens their horizons and at the same time gives them the chance to try out different things, without the fear of failure.

2.Confidence in everyday education

Most schools these days are target driven and pressurised to focus on academic areas and sadly, subjects like performing arts have taken a back seat. Added to this is that primary schools.

Added to this is the fact that schools in London and surrounding areas tend to be quite large, at least in the state sector. This can mean that school events, such as Christmas shows, year assemblies and other pupil productions can become the domain of the most confidence children with the more reticent being given little opportunity to shine. A good drama school will pick out the talents in each individual child and coach them to be more comfortable to take the stage AND to enjoy being on it. There are fewer children to fight for attention with so they are often more bold and everyone has their moment of being a star!

3.Enhancing their everyday education

Soon after my daughter started her Ealing drama classes with Masquerade, her reading skills improved noticeably. She used far more expression, changing tones for different characters and situations when she read out loud. Previously she had read in the typical monotone fashion of a lot of young children. Now, each character had its own voice and she also learnt about vocal tones, conveying emotion in her voice and more. Even her school teacher remarked on the difference.

After a term of drama classes, my son’s teacher commented on how much more confidence he was at putting his hand up to answer questions in class. I credit their extra-curricular theatre arts classes with Masquerade Arts.

4.Language and communication skills

Children certainly expand their vocabulary skills by participating in drama activities too. By playing different parts, learning poems and song lyrics, encountering authors, playwrights and themes they may not have come across before, children are introduced to words, language and topics that they haven’t previously encountered. Drama is a fun way for your child to practise reading out loud and it will enhance your child’s ability to read with expression, more fluently and to increase their understanding of topics in books and empathy with the characters within them.

5. Social Skills and New Friendships

In close association with gaining confidence, social skills also get a workout in drama classes. Not only can it help children make new friends, but from working in small groups for different scenes, teamwork is a necessity. As a group, the children work together to produce their best possible performance – learning to rely on and support each other in turn.

By rehearsing and performing together, they learn to cooperate and communicate with children in different age groups too. This presents a great opportunity to make new friends and the classes themselves provide a common ground for friendships to flourish even if children are in different schools or year groups. It can be wonderful for children to make friends in different schools as well. This is particularly valuable if they go through a hard time socially at school or fall out with a friend.

Children who struggle to form friendships at school often find they make friends more easily at their drama lessons.  It’s also a nice way for children who separate after the end of Year 6 to different high schools to stay in touch if they attend extra-curricular drama classes together.

6. Teamwork

By learning co-operation skills via the teamwork required at their performing arts classes, children learn to work together as a group with a common goal. They take great pride in the performances they produce as a team of mini actors. Holiday workshops encourage group project work and often involve the children helping to design and enhance the show themselves, unleashing their inner creative and innovation talents.

7. Self-expression and dealing with raw emotions

Drama involves looking at a range of feelings and how characters deal with rage, jealousy, grief, fear and love. By studying performing arts, children are also studying human behaviour and learning about common human emotions. Drama students observe the different situations that human reactions can arise from. It helps build human intelligence, putting them in good stead for coping with difficult situations in the futures. A class might include a brainstorming exercise to get children thinking of different words and phrases to describe how a character is feeling in a scene. Subjects such as bullying, sibling rivalry, problems at school and other life situations feature in dramatic scenes and help children express themselves via the non-confrontational medium of drama.

During their drama education, children learn about the range of human emotions and many different ways that they manifest themselves. Role play is a natural part of children’s play and drama classes can basically help to direct that natural play technique into harnessing the child’s ability to understand and control their feelings in a more positive way.

8. Fun and enjoyment!

All in all; there are many ways that drama classes can help your child’s development. It is a very versatile pastime and will bring many social and intellectual benefits as your child progresses. However, the main emphasis should always be on the fun, enjoyment and inner sense of achievement that children get from participating in performing arts.