What is play therapy? You may have heard about play therapy - but what is it anyway? Play therapy is a type of intervention which is designed to help children grow up as happy and well-adjusted as possible. It involves the use of play to communicate with children and to help children learn to solve problems and change their negative behaviours. Sometimes it involves the entire family. At first, you might wonder why anyone would suggest play as a way to overcome children's problems. Here's why play therapy is often recommended for children: Play is the primary way that children: learn about the world understand how different things work express their thoughts and feelings develop their physical skills develop their mental skills develop effective social skills and bonds. As children grow, their use of language becomes more sophisticated, but throughout childhood, they usually express much more of themselves in their play. We can understand our children better if we understand their play. By watching children play we often learn more about their thoughts, feelings, motivations, and struggles than by talking with them! Play has been called the "language of childhood," so if we re-learn that language, it can help us build even stronger relationships with our children. Play is not something trivial; on the contrary, it is one of the most critical elements of healthy child development! Perhaps you've seen some of the nature programs on television which show animal babies playing with each other or with their mothers as they develop their hunting and survival skills. Scientists generally agree that play fosters healthy development of young and adult animals alike. Play leads to greater strength, increased physical and mental skills, improved judgment, greater security, and stronger social bonds, characteristics that contribute to success as the animal grows. The same is true for human children and adults. Playfulness and humour are closely related to mental health, intellectual development, creativity and problem-solving, and even productivity on the job! Although we sometimes think of play as trivial, in actuality it is one of the strongest supports for coping, learning, good adjustment, and productive activity! It is impressive the way people can use humour and playfulness to cope with some of the most difficult situations and with serious illness. humour and play help us get through tough times. What happens in play therapy? Actually there are many different types of play therapy, so what happens in a session can be quite varied. The common aspects are that the therapist will know how to systematically use play or playful activities to communicate with the child. The specific activities will differ. Here are some of the things that might happen. The therapist takes the child into a playroom that has a wide range of carefully selected toys. The toys are chosen because they help children express a variety of feelings and problems. The therapist allows the child to pick the toys and how they want to play with them. The therapist pays extremely close attention to the child's actions and feelings, sometimes engages in imaginary play with the child, and sets limits if the child's behaviour gets "out of line." The child's fears, problems or issues usually come out naturally in their play. Part of the therapist's training is knowing how to interpret the meaning of children's play. This can help the therapist discuss the "root causes" of the problems with the parents and come up with possible strategies that are more likely to work. Other times in play therapy, the therapist might decide to do a specific type of activity with a child because it will teach the child a skill they need to learn or will help the child understand things better. For example, if a child has trouble getting along with other children, the therapist might use group play therapy to help the child learn better social skills. The therapist might have the group play a game together while helping the children learn about sharing, taking turns, winning and losing gracefully, showing interest in others, keeping focused on a task, etc. Using the game holds the children's interest more than something more serious would and actually helps them practice and develop these different social skills more readily. So how is play therapeutic? Play therapy creates a safe atmosphere where children can express themselves, try new things, learn more about how the world works, learn about social rules and restrictions, and work through their problems. Play therapy gives children an opportunity to explore and open up more than usual. When we, as adults, encounter a tough problem, we often think about it for a while, look at it from different angles, determine our options, and sometimes talk about it with someone we trust. When things go wrong for us, we might mentally review what happened and think about how we might handle the situation in the future. During play therapy, children do these same things using their imaginations. Play therapy provides the tools (toys and activities) and the atmosphere to help children express themselves, work on their problems, "try on" different solutions, and learn more effective coping methods.