Importance of Stage Activities in Early Years

Children develop much of their capacity for learning in the first six years of their lives. Given the course of brain development, it is not surprising that young children who are exposed to certain experiences usually prove to be good at those skills.

This window of 0-6 six years of a child’s life can be effectively used to develop several centres of intelligences of the brain. 

Creating opportunities and encouraging children to participate in stage activities like singing, dancing , drama , fancy dress  and other such events has a lot of benefits. 

1. It develops communication and language skills.

2. It allows children to act out and make sense of real-life situations

3. It encourages children to explore, investigate and experiment,

4. It develops social skills as children, collaborate with others.

5. It helps  children to learn more as learning is disguised as play.

6. The parents get an opportunity to witness their children not only coming out of their shells but also melting hearts of all the onlookers.

Preparing children for small dramas helps to improve their overall intelligences . Rehearsing lines and movements , performing them  requires concentration and helps children improve their memory. Working with the group encourages teamwork and collaboration.

Drama requires children to openly express themselves throughout the activity, which helps them become friends by supporting each other. And the best part of this is its learning with a lot of fun and enthusiasm . As a result these are remembered for life unlike other theoretical learnings.

Stage performance is a unique form of creative expression, and it takes a lot of courage to stand on a stage and perform in  front of an audience. Smaller stage environments like preschool functions encourage all children to express their creative ideas in an interactive, nurturing setting. Even the most shy of all the children will be able to build up their self-esteem through  such performances.

Also parents need to understand that like all other learnings this learning of public speaking skills is also a process and it will not happen instantly. Most children go through the process of crying or faltering in their initial performances . But continuous encouragement from parents and school and ongoing exposure will bear results. Very often it is noticed that after a few failed performances , the children pick it up and then there is no looking back . It is a skill acquired for lifetime so much so that we find children enjoying and thriving on stage activities in a year or two provided they get frequent opportunities to face an audience.

When a child is given space to be creative and their imaginations supported, it helps to build their confidence and their self-esteem levels. This confidence gained from performing on stage in the preschool years will be very useful later  in school like  becoming class leaders , prefects, student counsellors, anchoring shows , boldness to answer in a group and many others.

And all these exposures in student life are eventually building the life skill of public speaking and fearless thinking and expressing which will not only help them in their careers but also in every walk of life throughout their lives. And when they will connect the dots then, they will realize it all started with small performances in preschool.