“Birds fly, fish swim, and children play.” -Dr. Gary Landreth
Although play is often regarded as a way for individuals to relax and enjoy themselves, scientific research found that play is crucial for healthy child development. Neuroscience has revealed that the majority of brain growth happens within the first five years of a child’s life and that learning through play, contributes significantly toward the development of neural interconnectivity, to integrate and stimulate fully functional brain development. The aforementioned are necessary building blocks for the healthy development of key areas in a child’s life, such as cognitive, social, and emotional development, as well as memory and sequencing.
Play is especially important for persons that have experienced stressful events, loss, or trauma. Effects of trauma reside in the nonverbal areas of the brain (hippocampus, amygdala, brain stem) whilst a person’s capacity to communicate and process trauma resides in the brain’s (verbal and reasoning) frontal lobes. The physical activities of play therapy are instrumental in moving traumatic memories and sensations from the nonverbal brain areas to the frontal lobes, where processing and integration aid in growth and healing.
During a session in the playroom, the child is given the opportunity to choose from a range of resources and activities meant to encourage the expression of themselves and their feelings, as well as developing healthier behaviours. These include art materials, sand trays, puppets, musical instruments, clay, drama, fantasy, dress-up clothes, dolls, and stories.
A key principle in Play Therapy is that given the right environment, a child has the ability to solve their own problems as the child’s inherent resilience is activated and strengthened. The sessions take place in a safe, child-friendly environment, are client-led, with the child deciding how to spend their time and being able to freely express their feelings. This builds their confidence, self-efficacy, and autonomy, critical to personal growth and healing.
The child’s interaction with the toys serves as the symbolic words in expressing themselves, which allows the therapist to learn about specific thoughts, emotions, and events that the child may find impossible to express verbally. As a play therapist, I am there to support and facilitate the process by reflecting these expressions back to the child, creating awareness, and enabling them to gain insight into their emotions and behaviour. Specialist training has equipped me to better understand this symbolic language of play that children use to communicate their struggles experienced. As therapy gets more structured the therapist can introduce specific items or activities aimed at relating and addressing specific issues the child is facing.
Benefits of Play therapy:
| Develop positive decision-making skills Learn ways to relate to people and build healthy relationships Encourage self-awareness, to assist children in making links between what they feel, why they feel it, and how it makes them react. Develop social skills Facilitates and improves the expression of emotions Find new and better ways of coping with life’s adversities Improve communication of personal problems or concerns experienced Encourage creativity Promote healing from traumatic experiences Promote self-efficacy |