Theater and children's psychological development/Teatro e desenvolvimento psicologico infantil/ Teatro y desarrollo psicologico infantil

This article aims to investigate the role of theater in children's psychological development, seeking to investigate which developmental aspects are present in the act of making theater. Six observations were made between April and September in the year of 2012 of the activities in a theater group for children aged from seven to twelve years old. The participants are part of a social project developed by a theater school in the town of Curitiba, Southern Brazil. The categories of analysis chosen from the concepts proposed by Vygotsky were: language, signs, mediation, imitation, emotion, voluntary activities, appropriation of cultural elements. By the end of the project it was observed that the theater provides means that make several psychological development aspects possible for the individual, which therefore can be understood as a mediator in the process of constitution of the human being.