Superhero Play : Hero or Villain?

As I walked in during lunch time at one of our centers, Pranshu, a boy all of 5 yrs, and wearing a Spiderman pajama set approached me. He said, ‘Ma’am, look I’m Spiderman.’ He struck a pose, folded two fingers and flung a pretend web at me. When you recognize the pretend play at work, you just love that the child is internalizing the character! This was followed by all the kids in the lunch-room picking to be a superhero of their choice. There were ninja hand chops that flew, followed by high in the air kicks, and some laser vision cutting the rest of us into two.

All in all, one single statement triggered a whole lot of play opportunity. Children love superhero play. It brings out their imagination, letting them take on many roles. Superhero play is often rambunctious and nearly always has violent content. Superheroes are vigilantes, they protect the society and hence children don the role of protectors who have to fight and break rules in order to protect. That raises the very pertinent question, does fighting for right mean fighting is right?

Chotta Bheem has become a hot favorite of many of the children. Don’t you ever wonder what are the lessons that children are taking back from this particular character? Are we promoting rowdiness in children by allowing superhero play? At what stage should we interfere and stop the impact of the superheroes on our children?

Before we set about answering these questions, let us understand a little bit more about superhero play. When a child pretends to be Wonderwoman, she is essentially thinking about good and bad. Children are applying rules and expanding their understanding of ‘right’ through superhero play. Children learn to regulate their behavior as they have to conform to a particular type of behavior to be a particular superhero. Acquiring self-regulatory skills is a desired outcome of any form of play.

Children learn to co-create and cooperate during superhero play. In an age when bullying is not uncommon, or when children are exposed to much more violence due to the media explosion, they need a medium to express it. The pretend violence opens up a dialogue about real-life violence and real life problem solving. It is important as adults for us to place this play in context. We need to be able to read the subtle signs that the children are giving us through this medium. If we do not allow superhero play, we lose an opportunity to understand our children better.

Many educators have consciously chosen not to allow superhero play in their classrooms and maybe they have good reason for it. While some other educators have acknowledged children’s desires to play superhero themed games, but they coach and guide the play into more peaceful play.

Superhero play is an important element of growing up. Whether children learn from it is left up to you, the great dictator of justice.

With great power comes great responsibility!