Sociodramatic play is a joint activity of children in which they choose a plot that reflects a certain aspect of social relations (i.e., buying something in a store), distribute roles (i.e., a seller and buyers), and play together imitating the chosen aspect of social relations. Although the most influential approaches to sociodramatic play give different explanations of the appearance of such play and its role in children's development (Erikson, 1963; A. Freud, 1927; S. Freud, 1920/1955; Piaget, 1945/1962), all of them share one major idea. Sociodramatic play is considered to be children's free and spontaneous activity in which they do whatever they want, liberating themselves from any rules and social pressure; therefore, adults are not supposed to interfere with children's play.

Vygotsky (1966/1976) and Russian neo-Vygotskians (Elkonin, 1948, 1971/1972, 1978, 1989; Leontiev, 1959/1964; Usova, 1976; Zaporozhets, 1978/1997) developed a quite different approach to sociodramatic play. From their point of view, children play not because they want to liberate themselves from social pressure. The opposite is true, for by the age 3 years, as discussed in the previous chapter, children develop a strong interest in the world of social relations. The world of adults becomes very attractive for children, and they are looking forward to becoming a part of this world. In industrialized societies, however, children cannot fulfill this desire directly: They cannot be doctors or a firefighters. That is why they “penetrate” the world of adults by imitating and exploring social roles and relations in the course of sociodramatic play.