When your child’s play involves other children, even if they are not playing together directly, it is considered to be social play.  As you could have guessed, social play is described as the social interactions between peers.  There are many categories of social play ranging from the unoccupied behavior before engaging in play to cooperative play in which the children work together to attain a common goal.  Children move through these stages at different rates and some more outgoing children may attain the higher level faster than the shy child.  Sociodramatic play is considered to be the most advanced form of social play which uses their imaginations and creativity.  It is when children may imitate real life experiences or people and use fantasy and drama play together.  As with any other form of play, a child’s abilities in sociodramatic play will increase over time with more experiences and interactions with other children who will introduce them to more ideas.  When engaging in sociodramatic play, children use all forms of play, including physical, cognitive, language and social.  They combine these and work on all of their skills in this form of play.

To engage your child in social and sociodramatic play there are many ideas that you can consider.  Make social play available to your child both at home and in a group setting.  Try to get a large group if the child’s peers together to promote child-initiated friendships.  Help your child to develop proper social skills that will assist in them being accepted by their peers.  If your child is having issues initiating play you can enter into the play situation and model the proper social skills and play behaviors.  Make sure to provide materials and toys that foster sociodramatic play.  Try to introduce new materials or rotate the toys in and out of play to keep the creativity flowing.  Give your child an opportunity daily to engage in sociodramatic play.  You may choose to include materials that are specific for certain play themes.  Choose themes that are of interest to your child, or that they are familiar with to start the play.  Make sure that there are a variety of roles that children can take on when there are participating in the play.  To engage children in sociodramatic play, make suggestions or model different roles appropriate for the play.  If a child is being too aggressive, make an intervention or redirect them to start using positive social behaviors.  Do not interfere with the story lines that your child is creating unless it becomes unsafe.  

Remember that as a parent, you are a role model for how to engage in social play.  Give your child ample opportunities to play with their peers by the means of play dates or in a group setting.  Introducing them to new children will foster new ideas between the children.  As your child engages in social and sociodramatic play their skills will develop over time.

Sources: Developing quality sociodramatic play for young children (2003), Education by Nicki McCullough Calabrese; Types of Play. Developmental Psychology Student Netletter, Mesa Community College; Play and Child Development (2005) by Joe L. Frost, Sue C. Wortham and Stuart Reifel