Children’s theater is one of the most widespread extracurricular activities in recent years due to the multiple benefits it brings to the little ones, since it favors their development and awakens their curiosity. With this type of entertainment they will improve many of their personal skills and, most importantly, they will have fun and socialize. So we should not think that the only purpose of enrolling our children in theater classes is the professional activity; it is not necessary to be an artist to practice theater.
In the theater workshops for children they will develop their imagination and oral and corporal expression in a very similar way to when they play among themselves, but in a guided and guided by a professional. Theater for children transmits values so that children can identify themselves, learning from the experience of the characters. It is clear that there are many benefits of theater, if you want to know all the positive things that theater can bring to your child, we recommend you to continue reading.
Benefits of theater
Theater activities for children are very complete and enhance many skills favoring the emotional, cognitive, physical and social development of children while they have fun and play, therein lies the importance of theater. These theater activities help children to connect with their bodies and emotions. In this way they get to know themselves better and lose any possible shyness.
Preparing children’s plays creates a family atmosphere in which children show themselves as they are; in a theater class children can be very different, which facilitates mutual learning by creating a place of leisure and work, but there are many more benefits of theater for children.
Stimulates creativity and imagination
Children’s dramatization manages to stimulate children’s creativity and imagination. This ability of the little ones is being lost due to the continuous use of so many mobile devices and television programs that do not allow them to create and enjoy their own fantasy.
Improves verbal expression
They will be able to reinforce their academic reading and literature tasks thanks to the theater scripts for children, which will allow them to update and expand their knowledge in terms of language, history and art. In this way, they will be able to develop their verbal expression by improving the way they communicate: fluency, vocabulary, clarity, diction, etc.
Improves body expression
With children’s theaters , body expression is developed and children become more aware of their bodies, so they can express feelings, sensations and emotions through their bodies.
Seeing the world through the body of another person, the character, helps them connect with their emotions and develop the empathy necessary for communication, one of the benefits of developed body language .
Develops social skills
Through teamwork and relationships with peers, the children help each other through their common goal, to perform a play. In this way, they manage to develop their social skills, which will be very useful in the future when they have to socialize in any work or personal situation, especially for those children with communication difficulties.
This improvement in socialization will be reflected in an increase in self-esteem. Children will feel more confident and will gain self-confidence, which helps them to disinhibit themselves and lose the embarrassment that limits them in their relationships.
Increases reflective capacity
Having to put themselves in the place of the character they will bring to life forces them to reflect and develop empathy. This skill allows them to know their emotions, connect with them and control them. In this way, they will better understand the world around them and the different ways of seeing it through self-development and self-knowledge.
In short, they will know how to express their feelings and recognize what they are feeling at any given moment, which will improve their capacity for reflection and their ability to put themselves in the other person’s role.
Instills positive values
Through the preparation of theater plays for children, they will learn many values and know how to transmit them. Teamwork instills in them values such as responsibility, collaboration, equality, respect, commitment and tolerance, to highlight some of the most relevant ones.
Increases work perseverance
Children must work for a long time to achieve their final goal. This implies that they must understand and value constancy in their work, since the results are not immediate. Children’s theater is a good way for the child to assume and understand the concept of discipline in work.
Educational theaters
There are many theatrical activities or theater games for children with which the little ones will learn and enjoy in their after-school hours. Some of the most outstanding ones include: mime, dance or imitation of stereotypes. One of the most used theater exercises is the imitation of objects: movement, sound, type of voice, physical characteristics, etc. This increases their imagination and creativity through play and fun.
In theater classes , children fantasize and collaborate with all their peers, so it is considered a therapeutic activity with socializing purposes, since contact with other children is considered the basis of education, especially if it takes place in a collaborative and positive environment.
From the age of 5, the child is already able to understand small texts, has a high power of memory and absorbs everything he hears, be it songs, sounds or texts.
If you want to foster your child’s creativity and ability to interact and be uninhibited, take a look at the theater, film and acting classes that we offer at Toddl.